Wouldn’t it be nice to have the old days back, where all you had to do was worry about enough boxes for the bees and splitting in time to prevent swarms. Yes, it seemed easy back then that was before global trade brought the Varrora destructor and a whole host of new viruses and additional problems. These days it seems that the cost of keeping bees is terrible with the medications and treatments and losses…. How can beekeeping be affordable again?

     One answer is to pick a product that the bees can provide that has a large profit margin and hopefully as little work and cost as possible. The product is Pollen. Yes, the bees need the pollen to sustain the colonies, it is their protein source, but the bees are very good at gathering and can make a surplus of pollen as well as honey.

    You would require a pollen trap to remove part of the pollen that the bees collect. Most pollen traps remove 60 – 70% of the pollen the bee collects and the remainder of it is brought into the hive. Yes this creates a shortage of pollen, but the bees sense this and divert resources from nectar collection and focus on more collecting of pollen. This will balance out the hives need for pollen, but you must keep and eye to ensure they are getting enough and that there is still enough honey in the hive. I feed the bees sugar water so they don’t have to devote resources to collecting nectar, which is scarce in early spring anyway.

     Pollen can retail for up to $20 per pound, but you need a market for this. At least with pollen you won’t be taken to the cleaners if you choose to sell wholesale and forget the marketing. But the pollen has to be ready to sell and that means removing it from the trap, cleaning the pollen and then drying it unless it is to be sold fresh in which case you would put it in the freezer. The cleaning can be done by using a hair dryer and blowing in one direction and pouring the pollen in front of the breeze… this will remove the chaff and debris from the pollen. Next take the pollen and put it in your dehydrator. A low heat and fan with drying trays that have a fine mesh will give you the dry pollen you need. Your pollen can be used during queen rearing or added to brewers yeast when making pollen patties.

     There is a good market for Pollen and usually you can collect about a pound per day per hive during a good pollen flow. The traps should be used on strong hives and the bees will take time to get used to them. Many people trap for a few days and then bypass the trap for a few days so they can catch up. The pollen trap should have a bypass that is easily assessable so this can be done without disturbing the hive.

    Ok, maybe the bees are not free and some investment will be required, but it is possible for the bees to provide enough pollen to have them pay for themselves and to me that makes the bees free, or at the very least less expensive.