Harvesting pollen and propolis

Harvesting pollen

Place the pollen trap on the flying board and attach it to the cabinet with 2 hooks. Once the bees get in the habit of entering through the pollen trap, you can start harvesting your pollen.

The bees bring the pollen grains with them on their hind legs, upon entering the grains fall into a container that must be emptied daily.

Pollen grains are harvested by the bees from the stamens of the flowers. The chemical composition of pollen differs from plant to plant. The amount of proteins varies from 7% to 35%. Pollen is rich in vitamins.

Propolis

Bees collect the resin from the leaf buds of various trees. The bees mix the collected resins with pollen constituents and add various kinds of highly effective enzymes and ferments. This is how Propolis is created. Propolis protects the bees against bacteria, viruses and fungi and is also used by the bees for various purposes:

• To process a small part in wax frames
• to coat the whole bee's nest
• The cells where egg are layed are polished with propolis. This way the hatched larvae are protected from disease.

Harvesting propolis

Propolis is harvested by scraping it off the frames or by using a fine grid that is placed in the hive and the bees then fill the openings with propolis to seal them.