How Do Beekeepers Collect Bee Pollen

  Although beekeepers generate the majority of their income from sales of honey, most supplement this income with alternative bee-connected activities. The sale of bee byproducts like bee pollen is one method of supplementing income. It's marketed as a high-price health food product, and can command sensible costs, whether the beekeeper sells the pollen as unbranded raw granules at his own native facility, through native grocers and health food retailers in his community, or to dealers who process the bee pollen into capsules or alternative branded health food merchandise, distributing the capsules nationally or globally.

  Bees, of course, have a reason for collecting pollen, and beekeepers who sell pollen must be positive to gather the pollen without disrupting the life of their hive. Bee pollen is the male seed of flowering plants, needed for plant fertilization. Some pollen is air borne, however the pollen that bees collect comes from a selection of plant blossoms. Bees collect pollen to feed to their young back at the hive, but a lot of of the pollen is scraped off their legs as they fly from blossom to blossom, therefore accomplishing the crucial task of pollination.Beekeepers, then, should watch out to not "steal" an excessive amount of pollen from the employee bees who collect it; the bee larvae back at the hive, once all, should be fed thus that the bee colony will continue to thrive. Beekeepers thus devise a drawer in the underside of the hive called a "pollen trap." These drawers slide in and out and have a wire mesh bottom, allowing for full air circulation.

  A replacement entryway to the hive is then cut out, such that worker bees exiting and getting into the hive must tolerate the pollen entice first. If the bees are aware of using another entryway, that older manner is closed off, and it might take some weeks for the bees to find out the new route.As bees fly through the pollen trap, some pollen naturally falls off their legs, falling onto the wire mesh at the bottom of the trap. Most pollen traps are designed such that bees should then taste a slim house to urge to the brood box, the half of the hive where larvae are raised. Passing through this slim space, about one-third of the pollen on their legs will disregard onto the wire mesh.Although collecting bee pollen in a very accountable manner does not jeopardize the nutritional needs of the colony's larvae, worker bees could have to work a small amount harder to produce food, as they are losing a third of their collected pollen with every trip.

  Bee pollen traps work best with sturdy, healthy hives, with an abundance of worker bees.It's important for beekeepers to collect pollen from the traps every single day. its raw form is an extraordinarily perishable product. It desires to be refrigerated immediately once collection, and will conjointly be frozen for long-term storage. Some beekeepers dehydrate bee pollen at their own facilities before selling it to the general public; dehydration has no negative effects on the nutritional worth of bee pollen. Dehydrated bee pollen does not need refrigeration, however if you purchase raw granules from your native beekeeper, be certain to refrigerate the granules at home and consume them comparatively quickly; or, freeze some yourself if you purchase a lot of than you'll be able to use within the short term.