A thread on Allen's forum

http://honeybeeworld.com/bb/index.php?sid=db3630ec634381848668e4c800b5b9d2

reminded me of what I did to keep my scuts alive during the winter in our
area of South Africa. I was a manager on a large fruit farm, and we had
250 acres of dates. Normally, the female date trees are planted in blocks,
with some male trees kept separate. The pollen is harvested from the male
trees, and used to pollenate the female trees by hand or with blowers or
something. Date pollen is hugely expensive, but looses it's viability
quickly, and then lost it's use to us. So the company gave me several
pounds, and this is what I used to start the bees going for the
watermellon and cantaloupe early crop. It's like a white powder that was
easy to pour into little dishes I made. I kept the little dishes and the
liter jars of sugar water directly on the top bars of the last super, and
put a full super with a tight lid on top of the jar and dish because if
you've ever seen scuts start robbing, you wont soon forget it.

I wonder what is done with non-viable date pollen which must be produced
in large amounts in some countries, and possibly even here in the States?

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