> From:          Andy Nachbar <[log in to unmask]>
> AUNT SUE honey is not filtered using DE so it does contain small amounts of
> Why anyone would want this pollen in honey is beyond me as it does
> not occur in honey naturally other then as a contamination. Bees don't add
> it to honey, if you add much of it to their own honey and feed it back to
> them they will get sick and die. It's the beekeepers that add pollen to
> honey in the extracting proces...........
This is partly true, partly false.  Most plants that have evolved
with an insect as their prime pollinator tend to attract insect with
nect and the anthers are close to the nectaries.  In these plants,
considerable pollen gets into the nectar before the bees collect it,
gravity, wind etc. playing a part. This pollen is found in freshly
drawn comb honey where no stored pollen is in evidence.  We did some
internal trials some years ago and found levels of  30,000 - 150,000
pollen grains per 10 grams (from memory).  Extracted honeys have
around 2-3 times the amount of pollen (grains per 10 grams, not
volume - an entirely different storey due to the differences in
individual pollen grain size).
 
Andy is correct that beekeepers can (not always) "contaminate" honey
with pollen during the extraction process.  Beekeeping management can
affect this, type of cappings system, use of queen excluders (bees
tend to store less above the excluder), the use of a permanent feed
box above the brood nest instead of stripping hives right down etc,
will all play a part in whether or not "contamination" will occur.
Airborne Honey Ltd., PO Box 28, Leeston, New Zealand
Fax 64-3-324-3236,  Phone 64-3-324-3569  [log in to unmask]
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