Collecting Pollen manually

[BlueBee]

If I wanted to collect pollen for next spring (to mix in with my whey :)), would it be possible to do that by simply going around to the flowers and shaking them in a baggie? 

[Michael Bush]

Maybe if you have 100,000 people to help you with that... the bees are professionals... why not let them do it?

[west end apiary]

the non condescending answer is no.

The more condescending answer is sure, how much time have you got, you must have time off from the saffron stamen collecting season, good luck.

Sorry had to do that. I think the intelligent answer is that it would be very difficult to get any great amount. I believe that the followinf is true, bees become somewhat statically charged during there flights and then the land on the flower and in the process of getting the nectar they move through the flower and the pollen sticks to them, once they are covered, they then "preen" themselves and collect the pollen to the back legs and then head home.

Now you are on a bee forum so you must know that you can collect the pollen off the back legs of the returning bees. IT is a trap that is placed on the entry to the hive and the bees move through it to get into the hive. The pollen falls off and you collect it. I think the advice is that you collect for one week and then not collect for 2 weeks through a good season. I have never tried it but have read about it.

any way hope this helps some,
          NIck

[BlueBee]

I was curious about manual collection of pollen so I didn't have to rob the bees of their stores.  I know they're the professionals at pollen collection.

I can recall many times seeing my car just covered in yellow pollen under the weeping willow tree in the spring.  There seems to be no lack of pollen if a person could figure out how to effectively collect it. 

Good point about the electrostatic attraction.  Maybe I could go around in my socks and collect it.  Just kidding, but maybe there is a way to generate a static charge and collect pollen in that fashion?

Right now, and all summer long infact, the Rose of Sharon bushes (Hibiscus syriacus) have been dripping in pollen.  I would agree most flowers aren't dripping in pollen like the ROS bushes.

[boca]

According to my book, in Hungary some beekeepers used to collect pollen manually for spring feeding.
Maize has not a bad quality of pollen, available in tons and tons. It is not difficult to collect a few kilos of pollen from it manually by shaking the male flowers into a bucket, but still not profitable nowadays in a western country.
The electrostatic collection is a good idea!

[Michael Bush]

>I was curious about manual collection of pollen so I didn't have to rob the bees of their stores. 

If you trap pollen, they just collect more.  It's what they do.

[Finski]

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No one collect pollen manually for beefood. Makes no sence.

It is better bye irradiated.

And second best is to take a pollen comb from hive and give it after cleansing flight.

Just now some of my hives have lowest box full of pollen frames.
When i extract last honey i may pick pollen frames and store them to be used in spring.

[BlueBee]

Hmmmm...... How about I just let the bees collect pollen for me :)

I was just curious folks; I guess it was a dumb question.  Some plants give off so much pollen, I just figured it might be possible to collect it now and feed it the spring.  If I had a little more spare time, I would give it a try.

[boca]

I guess it was a dumb question.

No it was not.
Cows, sheep and gooses are professional grass harvesters. Yet if you want to increase the productivity of your work you are not herding gooses but use machines to harvest forage and grains. Hundreds of tonnes of grains per day in an air conditioned combined harvester.



Imagine you drive your pollen collector on a corn field and in a few hours you have 10 thousands of kilograms of pollen.

[BjornBee]

Yeah...I can imagine that!

But reality is 95% of the corn in this country is pretreated with neonicotinoid systemic pesticides. And corn pollen is NOT very nutritious, even if it was untainted by chemicals. And empty mega fields that require combines for corn processing also are the same mono-crop fields that have produced nothing in the months prior in the way of diversity. Bees will always favor the highest nectar and pollen sources. But they also diversify their efforts and collection of food stores.

I would not suggest collecting pollen from corn, or feeding a single food source. The question is not dumb. I'll withhold my opinion on some of the replies.  :roll:

[boca]

I can now imagine what would be the reaction to the following post if white sugar feeding were not so widely used.

Hey folk! The bees sometimes suffer from dearth and starve during a long winter. I know it is a dumb question but I ask anyway. What if we give to our bees common white sugar which we can grow intensively and cheaply on our fields and refine it in our factories?

"If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it."
— Albert Einstein

[11nick]

I do not currently have hives.  I have been reading in preparation of getting my first hives in the spring......
A hive needs pollen to make bee bread for the brood.  If you collect pollen in a pollen trap for use later, how do you store that pollen?  In a jar with a lid, and put it on a shelf?  does it need to go in a freezer?  How do you feed it to the bees?  Just dump it on the inner cover?  Or do you have to make patties?

Have a good day!

[Finski]

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What about this.....cell cultivation and gene manipulation. We develope a pollen which propagate inself in vitro like a bacterium. - in kitchen of course...