Aloha:
 
Greeting from Hawaii!  The queen season has finally slowed.  The
Hawaiian weather cooperated this year tomake this our best queen
season ever.  Sufficient rainfall at the right time kept the feed
bill low and the drone populations high.  We are still catching and
selling queens and will continue through November.
 
Now that I have some time to work on my own personal hives, I am
hoping someone can help me gain some knowledge concerning pollen
collection.  Currently I have a small pollen buisiness (75-100 lbs
per week from 40 hives).  I sell most of it to local beekeepers to
feed back to their bees.  We also sell to local health food stores
for human consumption.
 
The health food store will pay four times as much as the beekeepers.
Of course the pollen has to be very, very clean and this is where my
questions comes.  I am currently using a seed cleaner to clean the
pollen.  This does a good job removing anything bigger or smaller
than the pollen grains.  Anything the same size and relative weight
isn't removed.
 
I am wondering what the large commercial pollen producers use to
clean pollen.  I have heard the words gravity table used.  Does
anyone out there know what this might be?  Are they expensive?
 
Any help would be appreciated.  Fresh-frozen pollen is selling for
$12.75 per pound here, and I am only limited by the speed at which I
can clean it.  The math ($12.75 X 100 lbs per week) is pretty
impressive and would make a great second income!
 
Thanks for any help!
 
Aloha,
 
Mark
 
 
 
 
 
 
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