>If I take the pollen I'm collecting and put
>it into jars without processing it, how long should it last if
>refregerated? I know there must be several variables, but I need a ball
>park number to answer cutomers quesions.

        I'm sure much bigger-time beekeepers will chime in with this
advice, and in jocular trendy terms.  It falls to me to insist in a
thoroughly non-jocular fashion that pollen must not be put into storage
until properly dry.
        Most are already downright Informed on the need for ensuring that
pollen is dry before going into storage; this note is intended for
neophytes.


        Much as pollen is indeed a relatively complete food for mammals, so
too it can support the growth of a wide range of fungi & other microbes.
Fungi cannot grow below a threshold of water activity (now there's an
arcane scientific term).  Keep the RH of the air in equilibrium with stored
pollen (many other organic materials) below 45% and you prevent growth of
fungi.  If they grow, they can in some conditions respire enough to make
the air much wetter and a disastrous positive-feedback develops, sometimes
ending with proliferation of very 'wet' bacteria etc.
        Rendering food obviously unfit for eating is not my main worry.
Some fungi make spectacularly poisonous chemicals but aren't apparent to
any ordinary inspection.  Nuts are the most notorious medium for such
_Aspergillus_ spp_  but it would be imprudent to assume that the fungi
which can contaminate moist pollen are 'self-flagging' and won't hurt you.
Novel pathogens are more likely today than in the history of science; that
they may emanate from commercial gene-jiggering is for some obscure reason
an offensive warning in the minds of some investors, but I will continue to
sound this warning.

        To rely on refrigeration having omitted the stage of drying between
hive trap and refrigerated jar is dangerous.  I would strongly discourage
such a procedure.

        As for the time-temp-RH formulae that should be given to customers,
forget it.  You who collect the pollen have the duty to dry it properly,
and all you should say to any casual Konsumer is that your drying process
is adequate and monitored.

        Now let's hear from those who can propose formulae.  They won't be
a "ball park number", I'm sorry.


R

-
Robt Mann
consultant ecologist
   P O Box 28878  Remuera, Auckland 1005, New Zealand
                (9) 524 2949