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Last year we purchased a Sundance Bee Pollen trap to collect the pollen. Dh and I started taking it in July of last year and we love it. What I would like to know is when do you put the pollen trap on in the spring. I can't find any information on the internet about when to start collecting the pollen again. We used up all our fall pollen and need more. All our Maples are in bloom and a lot of spring flowers are blooming so I was wondering if now would be a good time to start trapping the pollen. Last year we didn't get our trap until late June and that's when we put it on. A lot of the bee keepers in this area don't trap there pollen, there all in the honey business. I would rather have the pollen than the honey myself.
We decided to put our pollen trap on the hive, I took these pictures last evening. I weighed the pollen it was just under 3 ounces. The dark green pollen is from the Maple trees. The other pollen is from wild flowers and other trees.
What do you do with it and how do you preserve it. I have not trapped pollen yet but thought about it. The only thing I was told is you shouldn't remove it once on or the hive will become pollen bound from working so hard to get enough and then being able to bring it in without the trap in place.
We eat it, I guess it depends on how you like your bee pollen. We put ours in the freezer in a open ziplock bag for 3 days, then just keep it in the freezer until we use it. I don't like the texture of air dried pollen, it's crunchy and loses the great taste that freeze dried pollen has. Last fall we were getting a pound a day from one hive, sometimes more. We will remove our trap come fall when the pollen slows down, we don't keep it on in the winter months.
This maybe a little late. You want to put the pollen traps on about 1 1/2 weeks to 2 weeks after the winter cluster had died off and there is a good strong pollen flow. Then you collect pollen for 3 days then stop collecting for 3 days. This done because pollen is food for the brood. Most traps have some way to by pass the trap for this reason. You can leave the traps collecting if you can set them to collect only half (or less) of the pollen coming into the hive. That’s about 1/2 lbs of pollen during peak flows.
