Pine tree pollen?

[Chanticleer48]

Will bees use pollen from pine trees?

[BeeMcq]

Not a lot a nutritional  value in pine pollen, bees have better choices other than pine.

[sc-bee]

You will see bees checking out or carrying all kinds of items when select pollen is not available. Bird seed dust, sawdust etc. So do I want to make a blanket statement that you will not see bees in the pine pollen ..... no. But the pine pollen is of no nutritional value to the bees. I wish it was because it will not be long till every surface in my yard will look like it has been painted yellow. Cars, deck, porch, even you if you stand still long enough 

[troyin17331]

i was reading about the high nutritional value of pine pollen  a few weeks ago and will be collecting it for myself this year

https://www.google.com/search?q=pine+pollen+nutrition&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

[sc-bee]

Well dang.... I just need to kill the rest of my bees not been hard to do lately  and get a broom and start sweeping pine pollen for sale  Think I can sweep a truck load in about two months.

>In terms of pollen production, plant species differ in the quantity and quality of pollen produced. Some plants may produce an abundance of pollen, but the pollen may be of poor quality, whereas others may produce very little but high quality pollen. Plants that are closely related (within the same genus) tend to have similar amounts of crude protein available in their pollens. Plants with relatively high crude protein values include canola (Brassica napus ? 23%) and almond (Prunus dulcis ? 26%), while plants with lower crude protein levels include raspberry/blackberry (Rubus spp. ? 19%), willow (Salix spp. ? 17%), sunflower (Helianthus annuus ? 16%), and pine (Pinus spp. ? 7%).

>What can a beekeeper do to ensure that the nutritional requirements of the colony are met? A beekeeper should make certain that plants in the area actually provide pollen. For example, bees do not forage on many ornamental plants, so not all blooming flowers are attractive to bees. Also, the volume of pollen produced by a plant is not correlated necessarily to a bee's use of that plant's pollen. Pine trees, for example, produce copious amounts of protein-poor pollen but typically are not visited by honey bees.

[Michael Bush]

They will collect sawdust and coffee grounds in a pinch, so I'm sure they will use any kind of pollen if it's all they can find.

[GSF]

We had someone discussing the value of pollen from different plants. He said it is amazing, a bee needs xyz123abc to thrive. This plant may have a lot of x and a little bit of y, another plant may have a lot of y a little of z and none of the other items, the next plant lots of z...and so on. He said it's nature's way of making sure these plants all get visited by the pollinators. pretty cool I thought.

When America was being explored by the French army a lot of them started coming down with the scurvy. Scurvy is caused from a lack of vitamin C. They noticed the Indians around them were not effected. They told them about Pine needles. Pine needle cut up with  hot water added (not boiling) creates a drink rich in vitamin C.

[Intheswamp]

I've read a similar pine-needle/indian episode.  For the life of me I just can't bring myself to try this....seems too much like warmed up pinesol to me.<yuck>  But, survival means a person does what they have to do.

Ed

[BeeMaster2]

Ed,
If your body needed the vitamin C real bad, it would probably taste great.
I learned long ago that when you are really hungry, foods that you used to hate, taste great.
Jim

[sc-bee]

Pine needle cut up with  hot water added (not boiling) creates a drink rich in vitamin C.

I'll take your word 

[Michael Bush]

>When America was being explored by the French army a lot of them started coming down with the scurvy. Scurvy is caused from a lack of vitamin C. They noticed the Indians around them were not effected. They told them about Pine needles. Pine needle cut up with  hot water added (not boiling) creates a drink rich in vitamin C.

Actually pine might, but the story was about Arbor vita (the tree of life, the name the french gave it after it saved their lives) aka thuja aka western red cedar aka flat cedar.  Luckily for those uncivilized, uneducated Frenchmen the American Indians who understood how to avoid scurvy, saved their lives.  It's also why the American Indians made Pemmican (Wasna).  It's pounded dried meat with pounded dried fruit  made into balls and coated in buffalo tallow.  The fruit is why they could make it through the winter without scurvy.  And then they didn't even need to boil pine needles...

[Maggiesdad]

Dang -

Now I'm hungry...

[gww]

I am guessing that cat tail pollen would be about the same as pine pollen.  Not something you gether for emergency feeding.  I know, I'm a newby but I was going to look this up on google.
gww