Bee Pollen

[acjeff]

As a beekeeper, I would like to adress a topic I haven't seen much about. Bee Pollen. During the times when actual pollen is scarce, bees gather up any kind of dust, including grain dust...

http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek060122.html

Chip Taylor, the University of Kansas entomologist best known for his project on Monarch Watch butterfly tagging, tells us dust collecting by Honeybees is actually quite common in spring. If pollen is unavailable, Honeybees collect all sorts of dust that contains carbon--even coal dust. Dr. Taylor reports that in open markets in Central and South America it's not uncommon to see bees collecting flour from open sacks or spillage--a behavior also well-known in Africa--and that beekeepers sometimes put out "pollen substitutes" such as high-protein soy flour in spring and fall.



I tried posting about this elsewhere a while back, but it sort of got buried.

[the sensible celiac]

Wow, that's amazing.  I never would have considered honey as a gluten threat.

I wonder how often, if ever, samples of honey have been tested and found to contain measurable levels of gluten?

It is necessary to ingest a certain amount of gluten, granted a very, very small amount, before a reaction is triggered.   

[acjeff]

That is an excellent question. While honey is almost pure carbohydrate, it does contain traces of pollen. Hopefully, grain dust would generally be incorporated during times of scarcity, when honey was not actually being produced. If nectar was avaliable to make honey, pollen would also be available.
I feed a soy and isolated whey protein based pollen substitute during the winter, along with plenty of dextrose, so my girls don't go pick up anything weird. Honey produced from artifical feeding during the winter cannot be sold as honey (because its not made from flower nectar), but pollen produced during the winter can still be sold as pollen.

This article addresses pollen contamination
http://www.apiservices.com/articles/us/small_beekeeping/hive_products.htm

All honey contains some pollen. Too much pollen in honey is mostly an aesthetic concern. A high pollen content gives honey a cloudy appearance and can also give it a stronger taste. Pressed honey, or honey that is removed by squeezing it from the comb, has a higher pollen content than extracted honey. (Extracted honey is removed from the comb by centrifugal force. The liquid honey is spun out of the comb, and the solid pollen remains.)