Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Once in the hive the bee dumps the pollen into a cell. House bees pack down the pollen
and cover it with a light cover of honey in order to preserve it. The pollen is stored near
the brood nest and it disappears at a fast rate for use as food. It provides protein, starch,
vitamins, minerals and fat in the bees' diet, and the availability of pollen - especially
in the early spring for the brood - is something the beekeeper must ensure by the
location of the hives. Get to know your early pollen plants, such as gorse, rock rose and
willow. (Some nutritionists consider bee pollen to be a near perfect source of protein
for humans.)
These small pollen grains can be removed from the bees' legs as they enter the hive and
collected in what is known as a pollen trap. While pollen collection is dealt with in
Chapter 12, suffice it to say that pollen has a market as a health food for humans and,
as such, its collection is certainly worthy of the beekeeper's consideration. The market
for pollen is mainly for human nutritional supplements, for feeding to bees and as an
animal food. Pollen can be purchased in a variety of formats, including tablets, pollen
granules, oral liquids, candy bars, tonics, etc. The manufacture of pollen products for
human consumption has been growing at a rapid rate and, while the prices of pollen
products vary, they can often yield high profits.
Royal jelly is a milky-white cream. It is strongly acid, and rich in protein, sugars,
vitamins, RNA, DNA, and fatty acids. It is possibly the most valuable (in monetary
terms) product of the hive and numerous, fabulous claims have been made about it. It
is the food of queen bee larvae and, by feeding a worker bee larva this substance, she
will develop into a queen rather than a worker. She will be a female bee that can mate
- a totally different being from the worker, despite the fact that they start out exactly
the same.
For humans, royal jelly can be used as a food supplement or as an addition to cosmetics
to enhance their curative properties (and certainly to enhance their price!). There are
numerous stories about the powers of royal jelly and the part it can play in human
health, but most are anecdotal. In one of Roald Dahl's
Tales of the Unexpected
, a
