Pollen Harvesting, Processing, and Packaging

Abstract

Pollen are the tiny, male reproductive units that form in the anthers of flowering plants. The majority of flowering 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 and bees, the most important species. Bees collect pollen using specialized body parts for their use to feed brood. The pollen available for pollination is freely attached to bee body hairs. The characteristics of bee pollen will depend upon the plants from which it is gathered. Some bee species visit only a single species of flower in one trip meaning 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. As a result, a bee colony will tend to forage on a variety of pollen sources and bee pollen will tend to be a mixture of pollen from all the different species of plants that the colony’s foragers are able to visit.