[calkal]

I have been wanting to eat pollen for awhile now and realised I had some combs of bee bread left over from queen rearing in the freezer. I have been eating a chunk of this comb each day but I was just wondering is there less or more human health benefit to eating the bread or to eating pollen?

 

[Gray Goose]

I have been wanting to eat pollen for awhile now and realised I had some combs of bee bread left over from queen rearing in the freezer. I have been eating a chunk of this comb each day but I was just wondering is there less or more human health benefit to eating the bread or to eating pollen?

More

GG

 

[crofter]

How much benefit would there be to throwing some of my Feed Bee pollen sub and some honey in the batter for my next pancakes?

 

[Gray Goose]

How much benefit would there be to throwing some of my Feed Bee pollen sub and some honey in the batter for my next pancakes?

If you like the flavor of the Feed Bee sub.....

The bee bread is "fermented" and mixed with bee spit/ fore gut bacteria, depending on the description you prefer, compared to straight pollen.
Most pollen has a tough outer shell to protect it, the fermentation helps to "pre digest the shell" As well the bee bread has a longer shelf life, with freezers now not as big a benefit.

Folks selling Bee bread and making it in Europe as a super food.

Near big AG not sure I would eat it, however.

GG

 

[crofter]

Just because some item is the sole food supplied to young of another species does not predict that it has any special value to the young or adults of another species. People do spend a lot of money to consume small bits of royal jelly: it would be interesting to see if some smooth talker could even convince people that pigeons milk would have super powers! Sure could get a larger volume of product than with royal jelly.

 

[GregB]

Just because........

Bee bread is better.
Just like sourdough bread I make home from natural starter is better - hands down.
Or just like home-made kefir I make from Kalona milk.
You want good micro-flora in your food and lots of it.
The more the merrier - not much to argue there.

Here is a good starting point if feel like digging (I don't feel like fishing for the entire PDF).

MICROBIOLOGY OF POLLEN AND BEE BREAD : THE YEASTS | Apidologie

Apidologie, A Quality Journal in Bee Science

www.apidologie.org

Here is a good read (BB - Bee Bread; BP - Bee Pollen):

.........The digestibility and bioavailability of BB were found to be significantly higher. This suggests that the nutrient eect of BB could be higher than that of BP. This potential implies a better profit of bioactive compounds for human use. According to these results, BB was mentioned by Zuluaga et al. [84] as a product that should be certified as a functional food supplement, subsequently being studied for all implementation requirements.
Ukrainian BB samples analyzed by Ivanišová et al. [83] show similar data, as presented above from other countries,...................

Source attached. Page 11.

 

[GregB]

BTW, now is the perfect time in Wisconsin to harvest bee bread - this is a great outside winter project.
I am doing it today!
Thanks MLK.

Nice and crispy day is perfect for bee bread harvest - just jump to about 5:00 and watch on.

 

[GregB]

So indeed on the MLK day I made a batch of honey-perga paste.
Did spend a good portion of the day doing it.
Honey-pressing double-bucket works great (with metal screen in it).
Good stuff and have more to do.

 

[karenarnett]

Okay, a bit more info needed. This looks promising, GregV. Since I don't speak Russian, I wonder if you've done a video onthis. I infer that it's best to work with frozen comb since it's brittle and will break up easier. Then how do you separate the small bits of wax from the beebread?

 

[GregB]

Okay, a bit more info needed. This looks promising, GregV. Since I don't speak Russian, I wonder if you've done a video onthis. I infer that it's best to work with frozen comb since it's brittle and will break up easier. Then how do you separate the small bits of wax from the beebread?

I don't bother with the videos.
Freeze the combs first.
Then you can process them at your convenience (best to do outside in cold weather).
I have a queen excluder attached to a regular super box - dump the mix into it shake; the small bits will fall through but the bee bread granules will remain.
If wish to go finer, have a similar rig with 1/4" screen - repeat and separate away smaller pieces of bee bread.

It is time consuming.
But I have done this once last winter and set with my bee bread product for a year or more.

 

[karenarnett]

I don't bother with the videos.
Freeze the combs first.
Then you can process them at your convenience (best to do outside in cold weather).
I have a queen excluder attached to a regular super box - dump the mix into it shake; the small bits will fall through but the bee bread granules will remain.
If wish to go finer, have a similar rig with 1/4" screen - repeat and separate away smaller pieces of bee bread.

It is time consuming.
But I have done this once last winter and set with my bee bread product for a year or more.

Don't you get a lot of wax particles in with the bee bread?

 

[GregB]

Don't you get a lot of wax particles in with the bee bread?

For sure some. And some cocoons too.
They don't bother us (me and wife).
But it is a function of how much time you want to spend sifting the stuff out.
Want it cleaner, clean some more.

All of this assumes your combs are not polluted much (which is the case with me).

It is indeed best to do this work outside in cold weather.
Once the stuff is not brittle, it becomes sticky and PITA to work it then (which I have done, but it is PITA).