# Maximizing pollen collection



## BareHoney (Jan 2, 2011)

Does anyone have any tips for me on how to maximize pollen collection?


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Put pollen traps on the maximum number of hives 

Jean-Marc


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

The #1 stimulant for pollen collection is brood pherimone.
If you have a hive with a young, strong laying queen and stimulate them with light syrup at the right time of bloom you will often see almost every single bee entering the hive with full pollen baskets.
Evaluate your queens. Stimulate with light syrup when weather allows for flight early in the day.


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## alpha6 (May 12, 2008)

Ok..one thing to be aware of...if you are running pallets, make sure all of your hives on that pallet have a trap. Otherwise the bees will return and go to the hive without a trap as it is easier to get into. I know it sounds weird but trust me...it's a great way to watch your strongest hives die very slowly.

So that being said, your strongest hives will bring in the most pollen. Don't even waste time putting a trap on a weak hive or like a package untill they get a good amount of brood going. If you have the means (hives) as they grow stronger pull a frame of brood and bees from those and place it in your trap hives...this gives them a boost and won't cut down on your honey hives.


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## JBJ (Jan 27, 2005)

Another consideration is the type of bee. There are lines of bees that are bred for pollen hoarding: http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/content/76/3/155.abstract

"High-line full-sized colonies averaged from two to 13 times as much hoarded pollen as the low-line full-sized colonies."


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## Naturegoods (Mar 12, 2010)

jean-marc said:


> Put pollen traps on the maximum number of hives
> 
> Jean-Marc


That'll work, I like it


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## Naturegoods (Mar 12, 2010)

I have not collected pollen in years but I do recall I found that leaving the trap in place, over short time production went up. I believe because the more pollen you strip off the returning bees, the more they forage for pollen to keep the hive supplied, the more you strip off, the more they forage, etc etc


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## Mrrealestate (Feb 25, 2011)

when looking on Ebay today for pollen traps the one person selling them there stated that collecting pollen was good for the hive: 

Is this true that collecting pollen is good for the hive? He claims that collecting the pollen puts less stress on the hive..?

I am just wondering how this could be?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Anatomic-Pollen-Trap-Entrance-Mount-Design-/150482199621?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2309702445


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## Naturegoods (Mar 12, 2010)

I cannot imagine how blocking the entrance with a pollen trap could possible be good for a hive. I can imagine how someone trying to SELL a pollen trap would make that claim.
Maybe the claim is that the trap could dislodge veroa mites as the bees squeeze through the wire, or that the q cannot escape. On the other hand drones are trapped in the hive, and you are robbing their protien source as it is brought in, slowing their collection of nectar and pollen.


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

Like Jean-marc siad, put them out on the maximum number of hives. Another thing to add to that is to put them out at a time when a good pollen source is available during good weather. Select your hives to use, make sure they are strong and disease free. Example of this would be not using a hive that has chalkbrood if your using an AOC style of pollen trap.
A pollen trap put out for a week of good weather during a good pollen flow will generate 4-8 pounds or more through that week. Remove the trap afterwards since the bees need pollen too. 
Something intresting is the nutritive value of pollen for honeybees. by traping a good source of pollen, one can feed it back to the bees during lean times or for build up early in the spring. fresh frozen pollen looses little nutritive value and the addition of that pollen to what ever bag of pollen substitute your using will inhance the feeding by the bees.


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## delber (Dec 26, 2010)

chillardbee said:


> by traping a good source of pollen, one can feed it back to the bees during lean times or for build up early in the spring. fresh frozen pollen looses little nutritive value and the addition of that pollen to what ever bag of pollen substitute your using will inhance the feeding by the bees.


As a new beekeeper I have thought of doing this also, however the question I have is don't the bees store pollen also? Why take it from them if they can store it and have it available when they need it based upon the given circumstances?


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

You take it from them to induce them to collect more. You give it back to them in leaner times to stimulate them to brood. I don't have commercial pollen trapping experience but from the guys I know who do collect pollen, the bees might get 1 box of honey less. So it not like it's free. So for those guys the value of the pollen trapped has to exceed the value of that "lost" box of honey, plus they would need a margin to ofset the extra labour cost of trapping , handling , and storing the pollen. I think it could be OK, if you have a store and sell the pollen to the public. If you trap pollen, for another beekeeper/pollen saleman type , then I don't think it's all that attractive. It's another source of revenue, but I don't think it's all that great. I'm not sure what pollen prices are but I think beekeepers might get $4.50/lb. Anybody from the Peace area know?

Jean-Marc


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

delber said:


> As a new beekeeper I have thought of doing this also, however the question I have is don't the bees store pollen also? Why take it from them if they can store it and have it available when they need it based upon the given circumstances?


for the most part, you'd only trap pollen from your strong hives at a point in the season when they have reach or are maintaining a very well brooded broodnest. At that point of the season they are useing a lot of pollen for rearing that brood. It may seam that a weeks worth of trapping might be harsh but in fact quit a bit of pollen still makes it through. Another thing is that because there isn't that same kind of volume of pollen entering the hive the bees will try to make that difference up by recruiting more pollen foragers. An absence of a weeks worth of pollen may affect the colony but only minutely. I've heard of people trapping for three weeks at a time but that seems severe and it does have an negative impact on the colony. once traps are removed the bees are quick to reploenish there stores.

I generally trap just at the end the maple-dandilion flow (around beginning of may). the pollen at that time is highly nutritious and like I siad I usually average around 8 pounds per hive. I feed this back to the bees in february-march with bee-pro patties. You can see that trapping off half of your hives will give an average of 4 pounds of pollen/hive to mix with beepro and 2:1 syrup bring it up to 10-12 pounds or more of supplemental feeding to your bees depending on the desired percentage of pollen you want in your feed. And lets face it, there's no better feed then fresh frozen natural pollen for spring build up.


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## Hopper (Mar 8, 2011)

I've read here somewhere recently that a good way of trapping pollen is two days on and two days off...that seems less disruptive to me


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## JBJ (Jan 27, 2005)

I have always found my best pollen producers where the best honey producers also; and that is with leaving the traps on the whole season. We use the style of traps that fit under the hive and let some percentage of bees through without taking 100% of the incoming pollen. We like to put them on the best hives. 

The colony has a protein requirement of 15 to 30 kg of pollen a year, sometimes more. 30 to 60 lbs is a lot and if the daily quota is not being met a good queen will make more foragers to make up the balance of what ends up in the trap. Some lines of bees are capable of producing up to 13 time more pollen than non pollen hoarding lines. A decent trap never takes all the pollen. Some traps you can adjust to let more or less through depending on what is happening with the pollen flow.


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## BayHighlandBees (Feb 13, 2012)

Does anyone trap pollen on a first year package? If so how long would you wait before attempting?


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