Bees Hemp THC & Legal Mary Jane

[beek4018]

Disclaimer: I'm seriously not trolling for pothead info.

Just curious if any of our brethren have had experience keeping bees around legal ( or other) marijuana fields, etc.

I'm a beekeeper and also a freelance writer and have been thinking about doing a story on beekeeping and pollination for legal weed growers.

I'm curious to know if the THC or other chemicals are also in the pollen, and how that affects the bees, themselves, honey production, etc.

Would love to know personal experiences or contact anyone who has same, and would be willing to talk on the record about their experiences.

Thanks.

[zopi]

That would make some interesting brownies..

[iddee]

No experience with hemp, but I would think it be the same as poison ivy. Poison Ivy makes a beautiful, clear honey that no one has ever developed an Ivy rash from. The oil doesn't transfer to the honey.

[slacker361]

What about poppy plants to help pollinate for opium

[beek4018]

Not sure Slacker.  There are no longer opiate farms.

[riverrat]

Not sure Slacker.  There are no longer opiate farms.

they are growing in the flower beds on street corners in eureka springs arkansas. couldnt believe it when I seen it but sure enough they are there

[CAHighwind]

Not sure Slacker.  There are no longer opiate farms.

Need to get in contact with some Afghani beekeepers... plenty o'opium farms in that neck of the woods; though those opium poppies do grow as weeds here and there, but I've never heard anything about it.  Back where I grew up in California, they literally had invaded all the yards in a trailer park.  The opium comes from the seeds if I understand right, so I don't reckon it'd affect honey/pollen.  As for pot...well, that grows as a weed (no pun intended) in a lot of places, and again, never heard of it affecting honey... but I dunno.  Mary Jane bees might just sit on the landing board all day, sipping on honey and Cheetos...

[Highlandsfreedom]

I don't think its the seeds they use I think its the oils from the seed pods.  If you cut a slice into one a white sap flows out and I think they use it.  The pollen from poppy's are black or the ones from our yard are anyways.  I think that pot plants are self fertilizing by the wind like corn and beans.  There are male and female plants in MJ and the females have the "buds" that have the seeds.  And if I remember right it has to do with the temp. and weather to have male or female plants.  But I'm sure a real expert will correct me where I'm wrong.  Good luck on your studies,  if you call a dispensary in Denver,CO you will get all the info you could want.

[Paynesgrey]

I know this one. You have to process/crush the pods while they still have the bitter syrup in them. Once the beautiful flower has dropped the petals, and is ready to harvest for dried flower pod arrangements and seeds, it is useless for illicit purposes. And you can't get seed from a harvested opium poppy plant, because they are still green and infertile when they mash them, at least that's what they taught us in school....

When I was a little kid, there was a sweet little old retired widow lady next door who grew a huge yard of the most GORGEOUS poppies. I used to lie in the grass and watch the bees work them and to help her harvest the dried pods and shake them out once they were further dried (what an awesome way to keep a preschooler occupied). I think she earned most of her yearly income baking poppy seed cakes. She was busy,nonstop baking from Hallowe'en on.

Anyway, one day, the RCMP raided her, and that they would have to destroy the flowers, or arrest her, because they were supposedly opium poppies. They wouldn't listen that she was clearly NOT harvesting them when they were a sticky mess. So she let them plow them under, and I think turned to selling pies for a living.

[Paynesgrey]

I think you are right on hemp being self pollinating & thats part of why they have such a problem getting rid of it from the roadsides and anywhere cleared, where it used to be grown for rope and sails. It can be a really invasive weed.

[Kathyp]

i have a funny story about some Southern Baptist relief workers i worked with and ditch weed (hemp) in Iowa....   :evil:

if you do a search on here i think there was along conversation about MJ and bees. 

[melliphile]

Cannabis is wind pollinated. It produces large clouds of pollen that are of little nutritional value to bees. The active constituent (THC) is found in the leaves and flowering buds if the plant. Bees can't get at it. Opium poppy is different from our more common Oriental poppy, but, nonetheless, the active alkoloids are in the latex that seeps out when the head is lacerated. Again, bees don't handle the latex, so they have no access to the intoxicating parts of the plant. I've tried to research Opium poppy honey and pollen in relation to bees, but found very little. If there were anything someone could get high from I bet we'd know all about it by now. :mrgreen:

[luvin honey]

Can't answer this, but I did recently discover we have a fair amount of weed growing around here. I didn't actually realize it until immediately after attending my 10-yo son's class on drugs and prevention. Went out to weed the garden afterwards and found the classic-leafed weed in amongst the others.  :-D

[Paynesgrey]

Mom always used to tell about how several times a year the county/state would mow the hemp that grew wild, pile it along the railroad embankments and wait to burn it until "it was dry enough", which funnily enough, was always when the wind was over town. Crime rate would drop to zero for about 3 days. Or course, that many decades ago, the crime rate was almost zero anyway :)The wild/rope hemp plants have far less of the drug in them, so it would take a lot more to get a buzz.

[deknow]

i've heard a few stories (some going back some years) of bees used not for pollination, but for "protecting" a crop.

deknow

[riverrat]

wow I'm getting an education on this one. I didn't know beekeepers was so in tune with how drug plants work. I know they they couldn't have gained this knowledge from experience. So they all must be undercover for the DEA. :-D

[luvin honey]

I think it makes perfect sense. Beeks get really in tune with plants, what blooms, if it's a honeybee plant, etc.

[JWChesnut]

This thread is silly. 

Cannabis is wind pollinated.  It does not produce nectar and the male flower structure does not lend itself to pollen-exclusive collection by any insect, since stamens and anthers hang down and release pollen in clouds of individual spores which do not clump.  Insect pollinated flowers are adapted to allow pollen to be a collected-- vertical orientation and pollen that aggregates in clumps easily. Bees might be attracted to resins on the plant for propolis, but in my experience tree saps are much more likely sources.

Papaver is a different matter all together.  Most poppy genera have bee adaptations and are very, very abundant pollen producers. The flower structure tends to have hundreds of stamen/anthers.  Bees will work wheatfield poppies, iceland poppies, the "california poppy" and the  "garden poppy"-- which is really just a denatured opium/poppyseed plant. Locally we have a lovely large perennial poppy, Romneya coulteri, which makes a bright yellow pollen, and bees loaded with this can be counted returning to the hive in large numbers. Most poppies are fragrant, a good sign that insect pollination is their selected strategy, the pollen clumps readily.  The iceland poppy, Papaver nudicaule, and the Oriental poppy, Papaver orientale, is planted widely as a spring annual, often in large colorful beds. Its nectar tends to be a diffuse exudation on the pod, rather than a droplet.  The bees push through the dense mass of stamens to lick the pod,  three or four bees will work a single large flower.  It is quite the show.

 The Garden poppy, Papaver somniferum, produce a milky white latex sap from any damage to the leaf or capsule, I haven't observed bees collecting the drying sap which is raw opium. 

[slacker361]

JW I was going to ask how you knew all this, but I see you are from California so I dont need to ask     :-D :-D

THis is a joke dont get offended

[Scadsobees]

It's actually a very poor honey and pollen plant.  Sure, it produces tons of nectar and pollen, but the bees bring that back to the hive and then just sit around gorging themselves on pollen and honey, using up whatever was already stored up and you end up with a net loss. :evil: