>Question: Do bees ever eat fresh pollen or does it have to be made into bee bread first?

well, it really depends on how you define terms.

the pollen starts to ferment in the process of collection by the bees (moistening the pollen so that it will stick together introduces microbes from the bee, and the pollen has microbes on it that are likely "activated" by the moistening.  btw, this is something that was reported incorrectly in the 3 part ABJ series (which claimed fermentation starts when the pollen is packed into cells).

so, unless bees are eating pollen right off the flower (which i've never read that they do), then the pollen is at least partially fermented before it is eaten by the bees.

the entombed pollen observations (where fungicide contaminated pollen is stored and capped...apparently not ever consumed by the bees) probably show one possible outcome of an interference in this process.

so, do the bees eat "fresh pollen"?  ...probably...but i don't think they often encounter pollen that is free from bee influenced fermentation.  at what point in the process one would call the fermenting pollen beebread, i have no idea.

deknow

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