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Captioning made possible by Acorn Media

Back in the winter of 1959,

I saw in a shop window in New York

a little white jar with a notice on it saying,

"Royal jelly, 2 ounces, $350."

I'd never heard of the stuff.

The shop told me it had magical properties,

and it undoubtedly has,

so I wrote a story about it.

Years later, Dick Van Dyke, who had read the story,

sent me from France a box of small glass vials

containing pure royal jelly.

I drank them, one by one,

but I'm not going to tell you what they did to me,

or I'll ruin what you're about to see now.

Hello, my beauties.

[Buzzing]

Hello, my girls.

Hey, shhh, shhh. Settle down.

It's only me. You know me.

That's the way.

[Indistinct]

Mmm, I know where you've been--

up along the big house, all along the lavender,

haven't you?

Now, then, down you go.

That's it. Settle down.

Leave so much work for one day,

even for bees.

That's it.

Night-night.

There we are.

Come on, my baby.

Just a little drop more. Come on, now.

I know you can do it.

Look at that, now. You haven't drunk an ounce.

Won't do, my darling. Well, it won't do.

Well, the clock's stopped.

It's no use, you know.

She won't. She just won't.

Tonight of all nights. Is it too hot?

No, it's just right.

It's really,

really worrying me, this, Albert.

What's the time? You mustn't miss it.

It's 20 to.

Aren't you worried about her?

I mean, look at her.

She's nothing but skin and bones.

She'll pick up. Won't you, my beauty?

I've been sitting with her for over an hour now,

and she hasn't drunk a drop.

Well, maybe you started too early.

No.

She didn't have nothing at her 6:00 feeding, either.

Well, Dr. Robinson said

you was to stop worrying, Mabel.

So did that other specialist

from Bicester.

Just a matter of time, they said.

So did the clinic

and Miss Meachen, the health visitor.

So, I think...

That I'm to stop worrying,

when our baby weighs two pounds less.

Two pounds less

than the day she was born, Albert.

I know that. What time is it?

I told you, 20 to.

No, I meant the program.

Oh, you and your precious program.

Oh, come on, Mabel.

'Tisn't every night I'm on the TV.

Oh, no.

It's Albert Taylor, famous beekeeper.

Whole village will be watching.

I am talking about our daughter, Albert.

God knows we waited long enough for her.

9 years. At this rate she'll die.

Come on. She'll pick up.

Pick up?

She's starving to death.

You just don't want to admit it, that's all.

I mean, take a look at her.

Her arms are nothing but sticks, Albert.

It ain't natural for a 6-week-old child.

If she dies, I don't know what I'll do.

The doctor said you was to stop worrying.

I don't want to hear about doctors, Albert Taylor.

I hate them. I hate them all.

[Indistinct voice from TV]

ALBERT: They're starting, Mabel.

Oh, Vickie...

What's the matter with you, my baby?

I know you'd tell me if you could.

[Bees buzzing on TV]

Good evening.

Now, you might wonder why I'm standing here

with this net over my face.

Well, what you can see behind me are,

of course, beehives.

Now, we, all of us, know about bees.

Or do we?

These beehives, standing in 6 acres of--

Mabel, it's started.

Hello, Mr. Taylor. Hello.

Now, tell me,

when did you first start keeping bees?

Well, I, uh, I built my first hive

at the age of 12

and caught my first swarm the year after.

I do sound funny, Mabel.

...a touch unusual for a beekeeper.

Quite a local legend.

Oh, I don't know about that.

Well, they say you never use smoke

or gloves or a net over your face.

No, no, that's true,

and I never been stung, neither.

Never? No.

Now, why is that, would you say?

Well, I don't know.

Bees have always liked me. I've always liked them.

When I was a kid,

I used to let them crawl over my face and hands.

My dad used to say there had to be

a witches stench about me,

but my mother took my part and said it was a gift of God.

So, you're a sort of St. Francis of the bees.

Oh, no, no. I'm no saint, no.

No, me and bees is, uh, me and bees.

In a good year,

Mr. Taylor's bees produce nigh on

2,000 pounds' weight of honey,

and it all began with that first hive.

Now he owns 6 acres.

How many hives, Mr. Taylor?

84.

84 hives and a house

he mostly converted himself.

[Baby crying]

You ought to have let me feed you.

This substance is produced in much the same way

as the mammary glands of vertebrate produce milk.

But Mr. Taylor can tell us even more.

Uh, well, royal jelly has amazing nourishing properties.

That we do know.

It's fed to all the bee larvae,

but some of them only get it for 3 days,

whereas the queen gets--

Excuse me. I'm sorry, Mr. Taylor.

We've got a piece of film coming up here now.

Now, this cell here is larger.

It's much larger than all the rest.

Yeah, of course. That's the queen's cell.

A cradle fit for a queen.

Yeah, that's it, Mr. Hayward, yeah.

Yeah, see, this larva here is destined to become a queen.

The others,

they're either gonna be workers,

or they're gonna be drones.

Now, they only get royal jelly for 3 days.

But this one here is different,

although she started off the same.

She gets royal jelly

for the whole of her larval life.

Right up to the time she emerges,

she swims in the stuff.

Yeah, but why is it so much larger?

Ah, because on a diet of royal jelly,

the queen larva increases its weight

by 1,500 times in 5 days.

How large, Mr. Taylor?

1,500 times her own weight.

That's as if a baby weighing,

say, 7 1/2 pounds,

would have increased its weight to...

5 tons.

Yeah, 5 tons.

And that's not all,

because royal jelly has other amazing properties.

Some call it the elixir of youth.

Mabel.

Mabel!

[Baby crying]

You awake?

Go away.

I got an idea.

I don't want to hear it.

I don't want to hear nothing no more.

I can't stand it, Albert, I can't.

All right, then.

[Sobbing]

What time's her next feeding?

2:00.

Maybe 6:00.

It's 4 hourly.

You know that as well as I do.

Right. I'll do the next two feeds.

You sleep.

No. Yeah.

I'm taking over now, completely,

so you can relax for the next 12 hours.

Real sleep for you, my girl, right?

Got yourself into a state.

Give yourself a breakdown,

you carry on like this.

I'm taking Victoria this minute.

We'll be in the spare room,

so you can sleep right through.

Just leave it all to me, right?

Albert.

Thank you.

Should have thought of it before.

Albert.

I do love you.

And me you, Mabel.

[Baby crying]

You sleep.

As he walked away--

it's only fancy, of course,

but I think Mr. Taylor looks a little bit

like a bee himself.

Good night.

Right.

Albert?

What time is it?

Oh, Albert.

Albert!

Albert.

Oh, no.

Albert!

Oh, Albert! What's happened?

Ssshh, ssshhh...

Oh, I'm sorry. I slept right through.

Is she all right?

Are you all right?

Hey, you look better.

Oh, did she take anything?

ALBERT: I fed her at 2:00.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about this morning's feed.

Did you remember that?

Come on, I'm not stupid.

She's been fed on the dot.

At 2:00 she took half an ounce.

Only half?

Mabel.

At 6:00, two ounces.

Two ounces?

Yeah, that's better, eh?

At 10:00, she asked me.

She did?

Yeah, she cried.

She didn't need changing, either.

Took 3 ounces.

3 ounces? 3--

Albert, that's wonderful!

Aren't you a good girl, then, eh?

There's my good girl.

I fancy, though, she looks better already.

Don't you?

Yeah.

You know, she seems to be sleeping

more placid-like.

Sort of plumper around the face.

Yeah, you know, you could be right.

Oh, Albert.

She has turned the corner, I reckon,

like they all prophesied.

I hope to God you're right.

I'm certain of it.

From now on, you watch her go.

You look 100%, too.

Me?

Oh, I'm fine, thank you.

Oh, I'm awful sorry about last night.

Oh...

How was you, then, on the telly?

Oh, it was all right.

Sounded a bit peculiar, I thought.

It went OK.

Ah, Mabel.

There's my girl again.

Hmm...Hey, what are you doing?

The bees don't mind.

Never mind about the bees.

What about people who see us from the road?

Cure for that.

[Baby crying]

Oh, Albert, of all the times.

Hey, that one don't approve.

Oh, well, now, she can't be hungry.

Not yet.

Well, she could be.

Well, no, she's two hours too early.

Come on, now.

Looks like demand feeding from now on.

It's a miracle.

Right.

Well, we'll carry on as we are.

I'll go on doing the night feeds.

Oh, no, I'll take over now, Albert.

I'm sleeping really well.

No, it's better if I do it.

The age of equality, right?

Well, I'll do the sterilizing, mixing, and the bottles, then.

Ah, now, don't change the luck, girl.

Oh, I'd rather do it, Albert.

I really would.

Look, I did it all last week.

Look what happened.

Results.

Don't change the luck.

She stopped.

Well, so what? She was early.

She'd taken all she needed.

Well, that's only 3 ounces.

Look, only last week you'd have been

over the moon about that.

She's doing fine.

Aren't you, my little queen, hmm?

[Indistinct]

So old, isn't he?

Come on.

All right, my beauties.

Come on, come on.

Time you came home.

That's it.

Home you go.

Away to your queen.

MABEL: Albert!

Albert, she's drunk it again.

Every drop.

Has she? Well, what did I say?

You should have seen her face.

Yeah?

Oh, it were a real picture.

[Clock chiming]

[Baby crying]

Right on the dot.

Wait, you have it.

MABEL: All right, I'm coming.

[Baby screaming]

I swear, this baby's getting heavier.

Good.

In such a short time.

There we are.

[Crying stops]

Huh, look at that.

Straightaway.

At this rate, we'll have to get a bigger bottle.

Albert? Hmm?

What was it you was gonna tell me

the other night?

When I was too tired, you know.

Oh, that.

Yeah.

What are you grinning at?

Was it to do with you on the telly?

Yeah, you could say that.

Mind you, I'd known it all along, really.

What?

You really do think Victoria's looking better,

don't you?

Bigger. Putting on weight.

Yeah. What's that got to do with it?

Do you?

Yeah, well, of course I do.

You've only got to look at her, haven't you?

Must be something to do

with the way you was mixing the milk.

You ain't been putting beer

in our baby's drink, have you?

Beer? Would I put beer?

Don't be silly.

[Chuckling]

But you have been

putting something in it, haven't you?

Haven't you?

Now, Vickie, wait a minute.

[Baby crying]

You tell me this instant, Albert.

What's this baby been drinking?

Milk.

Nothing else?

Albert.

Look, it's perfectly safe.

What?

What is perfectly safe?

Royal jelly.

Jelly?

Fruit jelly?

No, no, royal jelly, from bees.

I told you lots of times how they feed it to the larvae.

It's magic, Mabel.

I heard myself talking about it on the TV.

That's when I realized.

You must be out of your mind.

Of course, it's exactly what she needs.

Keeps people young. Makes their hair grow.

That don't mean you can feed it to babies.

Oh, go on. She likes it.

Go on, now. It's good for her.

Go on.

In America, it costs more than gold, you know?

[Baby crying]

All right.

That's it.

Look, I swear to you, Mabel,

it can't possibly harm her.

It's wonderful.

It's what turns a dull, plain, ordinary worker

into a great, big, beautiful, fertile queen.

What are you trying to say?

Our baby's dull and plain?

Of course not.

You see, queen larvae get more royal jelly

than the others.

That makes them quite different.

You see, worker bees

have practically no sex organs at all,

but a queen--

Don't you talk dirty to me, Albert Taylor.

No, I'm not.

No, this is science.

What's more, a queen lives longer,

and their legs are quite different.

Worker bees have pollen baskets on their legs,

but a queen don't.

Oh, no.

She's entirely different.

See, what's more, she's much bigger,

and her abdomen's shaped quite diff--

She's finished it.

There you are. What'd I tell you?

What'd you...

She ain't having no more of that,

I'll tell you that, Albert Taylor.

I don't know what's the matter with you.

I really don't know

what's come over you lately.

I swear, this baby weighs a ton.

Thanks to royal jelly.

[Buzzing]

MABEL: She's enormous.

What have you done?

She's all right.

Buzzzz...

She's got a double chin.

Zzzzzz--

Don't you touch her.

Now, wait a minute, Mabel.

Don't touch her. You must be mad.

Mabel.

Mabel, I know what you're thinking.

Look, I'll prove to you that royal jelly's harmless.

How much have you given her?

Enough. How much?!

Will you hear me, woman?

Now, why do you think that we had

only half our usual crop of honey last summer, hmm?

Because it was short summer.

That's what you said.

Not only that.

I turned over dozens of our hives

to the production of royal jelly.

Why? Why?

Well, you'll never guess the reason,

but she's-zzz the result.

Zzzz-zzzz.

You see, royal jelly--

it's a bit embarrassing, really--

also increases fertility.

I didn't like to mention it,

but you know how we had tried for years to--

tzzzzzzzzzzz...

You took it,

didn't you?

Gallons of it.

You... Bags of the stuff.

Zzz-zz.

Made me feel marvelous.

So different.

I went on taking it

even after you said you was expecting.

Gallons of the stuff I must have drunk

during these last 12 months.

It's made a new man of me.

Hasn't it?

Zzzzzzz.

Think how much better it's going to work

on a little baby

than a fully developed man.

Oh, my lord.

Izzzn't it?

Izzzn't it? Zzzzzzn't it?

I've got to see her.

See the size of her.

Zzzzz...

It's been a great success,

hasn't it, my little queen?

Zzzzzzz...

[Mabel gasps, then screams]

[Bees buzzing]

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Captioned by the National Captioning Institute

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