Buying Pollen

[Brian Bush]

I know this has probably been asked before.
Can any member point me in the direction of natural bee pollen that has been irradiated or sterilized to kill off any nasties. I want to use it later in the year in bee breeding.

 

[Erichalfbee]

If you have any contacts in OZ?
Irradiated pollen was nowhere to be found in the UK last time it was talked about here....I'm sure

 

[Poly Hive]

I was offered some on FB from India but they had no idea about sterilising so I said no.

When I got it in the past it was from a BF and he got it from a Spanish source.


PH

 

[foghornleghorn]

Contacted a Spanish crowd last year who were more than happy to supply it, unfortunately they needed an order of over a tonne to make it worth their while

 

[Michael Palmer]

Collect your own.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Here's a link to an earlier thread where Finnie was trying to find irradiated pollen. Nothing found in Europe.

One source of IP is Hornsby Beekeeping Supplies in New South Wales. To calculate the postage, go on the Australian postal service website and do the sums.

At the time of that thread, I spent a lot of time trying to find an irradiation service in the UK but could not find one.

CVB

 

[Beefriendly]

I know this has probably been asked before.
Can any member point me in the direction of natural bee pollen that has been irradiated or sterilized to kill off any nasties. I want to use it later in the year in bee breeding.

Are you worried about importing plant diseases? Collected pollen has not even been inside a hive, so the chances of it containing any bee disease are minimal.

 

[fatshark]

You can isolate DWV from pollen on plants:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0113448

Saxonbee used to supply irradiated pollen if I remember correctly:
http://www.saxonbee.com.au

The Australians report that DWV is not present in their country.

 

[Icing Sugar]

Are you worried about importing plant diseases? Collected pollen has not even been inside a hive, so the chances of it containing any bee disease are minimal.

Not true. Pollen imports have been implicated in the spread of bee diseases (including between continents), typically as a result of hive debris (eg chalk brood mummies and bits of bee) falling through the mesh and into the collecting tray of the pollen trap. Some traps are designed better than others and you don't really know what nasties might be lurking in brought-in pollen from an essentially unknown source.

Sent from my LG-H340n using Tapatalk

 

[Into the lions den]

Try Apicola Los Ribes in Montroy near Valencia. They do it in cartons and drums as well as retail jars. I understand they can supply irradiated.

This company split in two a few years ago (2 brothers going their own ways) and its the part run by the brother Santiago that you need. Their pollen screening and cleaning plant is HUGE...the height of a house.


but


Pollen feeding is very risky otherwise, and those suggesting importing it from outside the EU will have a lot of hurdles to cross. Even Mann Lake patties were hard or even impossible to import if they contained real pollen.

 

[Into the lions den]

Are you worried about importing plant diseases? Collected pollen has not even been inside a hive, so the chances of it containing any bee disease are minimal.

It does not have to be inside the hive. The bees make the pollen stick together by carrying some honey and making it stick together in their pollen baskets with the regurgitated contents. The pollen pellets can carry almost anything transmissible that way, contaminated long before it ever gets near the hive..

 

[Finman]

.
Bees mix about 30% honey from their mouth to pollen, that they get the pollen ball into their leg basket.

 

[Beefriendly]

I said unlikely because commercially collected pollen is dried and stored before use. This is sufficient to kill most bee pathogens...except perhaps AFB spores which require quite a high dosage of irradiation to kill them. Possibly more than would normally used for irradiation of food stuffs that concentrates more on killing living organisms than resistant spores.
But I agree, buying from unknown sources is perhaps not the best of ideas.

 

[Beefriendly]

You can isolate DWV from pollen on plants:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0113448

Interesting. I noticed they used fresh and frozen pollen. I wonder how DWV stands up to being desiccated.