Lloyd writes:
I am very interested in your advice on how best to clean
pollen for sale.  I use an expensive modified seed cleaner, but those with
only a couple of hundred of pounds really need something less expensive that
takes up less space.  Any ideas?

Cleaning Pollen:
Bee pollen should be frozen at least two days before cleaning it, to make sure any
ants or bees in the pollen are dead. Frozen -- rather than room temperature --
pollen is also easier to clean.

Cleaning pollen was a three-step process. The first step was to run about 25 lbs.
of pollen at a time through a mechanical seed cleaner. The machine automatically
sifted the pollen through a large-hole screen to remove pieces of debris larger
than the pollen and then shuttled it over a small-hole screen to sift out debris
smaller than the pollen pellets.

Depending on how "dirty" the pollen was, it was a good idea to run it through the
machine two or three times before moving on to the next two manual cleaning steps.

The second step was to pour the pollen in a thin stream in front of a fan several
times, which would remove any grit, bee wings or legs, and most other debris
remaining in the pollen. This step also blew off pollen dust not attached to the
pollen pellets, which improved the appearance of the pollen once it was packaged.

The third step was to simply look at the pollen and pick out any remaining debris.
The best way to do that was to pour about a cup of pollen into a dishpan and roll
it back and forth a few times. Any remaining foreign material would tend to roll
at a different speed from the pollen, making it easy to spot.

Cleaning pollen is a repetitious, time consuming job and the most important tool
you can have is a good radio!

written by Janet Lavelle
San Diego CA  USA

posted by Peter Borst
Ithaca NY  USA