The majority of plants on the planet today require that their pollen be transferred onto the receptive stigma of flowers pollination by wind, water, birds, bats, butterflies, beetles or bees, the most important species.
The characteristics of bee pollen will depend upon the plants from which it is gathered. Some honey bee foragers collect only nectar, some both nectar and pollen, and some only pollen. But flower fidelity, visiting only a single species of flower in one trip means the pollen pellets one on each leg will tend to be all from the same type of plant and uniform in color and can range from white to black. While pollen provides almost all the bees proteins and nutrients, there is no single type of plant that produces bee pollen that will have all the vitamins, minerals, fats and proteins in exactly the right ratios for optimum honey bee health.
Di Pasquale, Bee pollen is also the nutritional and mineral source for the production of royal jelly by worker bees. Bees use their heads to pack pellets of pollen collected by foragers into cells where it undergoes fermentation in the process of becoming bee bread. These cells are filled with pollen but have not been given a final capping of honey and wax needed for long-term Winter storage.
As bees fly through the air, they build up a positive static-electric charge on their body. Some honey or nectar is regurgitated from the honey stomach and mixed with the pollen grains in order to help them stick together.
This is why most pollen in a hive is typically found stored in and around the brood nest. When the pollen is not consumed fresh, honey bees ferment the pollen through the process of making bee bread. To make bee bread, worker bees fill approximately three-quarters of a honey comb cell with pollen and then fill the remaining quarter of the cell with honey. The cell is then capped with wax. This helps preserve the pollen for future use Anderson and it is theorized that it has the potential to make some nutrients more accessible for honey bee nutrition, although the science establishing this is weak.
If managed well a colony can provide plenty of honey for the colony as well as a good beekeeper. If done poorly harvesting honey can lead to the death of a bee colony.
It takes a new level of caution when tampering with the protein intake of a hive. More planning, equipment, and observation is needed to have your colony survive and hopefully thrive. I understand the concept of collecting honey.
Honey is a great natural sweetener. It has a great deal of microbiota properties that are still being discovered as research continues. The methods and techniques of harvesting honey have been perfected over the years and can be learned fairly easily. The idea of harvesting pollen however, is still fairly new, and has not been emphasized or developed nearly as much as collecting honey.
From what I have gathered, there are good reasons for collecting pollen. The first reason for bee pollen gathering is for supplementation of a colony in the spring after a winter season.
I can see that supplying a struggling colony with plenty of pollen would give a valuable resource to build up brood. Gathering pollen from a strong hive for use in times of need seems fairly plausible. The second reason for collecting pollen is for human consumption. It is reported that bee pollen may be a good health supplement for many aspects of the human condition.
However, many of these health claims are yet to be proven scientifically. It is interesting to note that as research instruments and methods become more precise and better overall, they are able to debunk and prove nutritional benefits of all kinds of things including products of honey bees. There have been many holistic practitioners and followers that have been using bee pollen for years. The claimed holistic uses and benefits of bee pollen are really interesting.
Allergy Treatment : Bee pollen has been used as an allergy treatment for years. The ingestion of small amounts of pollen over time is similar to the widely accepted treatment of having shots of pollen injected in patients over time. The effectiveness is when locally gathered pollen can be used to aid in the treatment because the allergen is generally local.
Ingestion of honey is said to have this kind of affect as well. A study about allergy treatment with bee pollen is linked here. Anti Inflammatory: According to the US National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health, the mixing of bee pollen with honey created significant anti-inflammatory activities with induced liver necrosis. Here is a link to the study. Here is the link to the study.
Wound and burn treatments : Pollen has been shown to aid in wound and burn treatment. The link for the study is here. Anti Depressant: The administration of bee pollen shows gradual mood improvement and desire to live. Study link here. Aid in health and protection of the liver : The study is here. It shows that bee pollen is a safe treatment for liver injuries.
Anti-Oxidant : This study used bee bread instead of bee pollen, but it shows some interesting findings about remarkable anti-oxidant properties that the bee bread has.
Lowering Cholesterol : Animal studies have shown that bee pollen lowers cholesterol. The link to the articles are here and here. Anti Cancer Properties: Studies have shown that bee pollen inhibits the growth of tumors and aids in treatment of cancer.
The study is here. Nevertheless, there is no better source of protein for brood development and queen rearing than high-quality pollen, so many beekeepers like to keep a supply on hand. But if you decide to trap pollen, remember that it requires constant manipulation and collection. When should I give the beebread to the nuc?
I also have pollen collected by a local beekeeper. How do I feed the pellets to the bees? The bees start using pollen when they start rearing brood. Brood rearing may cease during November and December, but it starts to build up slowly as the days get longer—after the winter solstice.
Pollen that is left in the hive all winter runs the risk of getting moldy, so you might want to wait till the end of January or so before giving them the whole frame. Some people put it in a syrup feeder with no syrup. Even seasoned pros have trouble keeping their hives alive, as you know. Always keeping at least two hives is a good idea because it gives you more flexibility when things go wrong.
Having at least two hives is the second rule of beekeeping. The first rule is that no one should keep bees at all, unless they are crazy as loons to start with. That, I assume, would include both of us. This is my second dead-out in 3 years.
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