Pollen / flower dust

Pollen consists of the male germ cells of anthophytes (seed plants). A large number of plants are specialized to be pollinated by animals.
The pollen which sticks to the bees’ bodies while they are gathering nectar is brushed off by the bee and mixed with saliva to form a sort of “trouser” on the back legs, carried to the apiary and deposited in the honeycomb. As many as four million grains of pollen are collected in the course of each flight. The pollen is stored around the breeding nest, since it is primarily needed to supply the brood with protein. The cells of the honeycomb are filled with honey in such a way as to ferment the enzymes in the honey. This gives rise to the so-called “beebread”.

The mixture of pollen, honey and wax is referred to as “ambrosia”, the food of the gods! Owing to its high protein content, pollen is used as a tonic in cases of general weakness and is used for desensitization by people who are allergic to pollen.
Pollen is obtained by means of a mesh on the entrance to the hive which scrapes the pollen sacks from the bees’ legs.

Pollen analysis is one of the methods used to determine the honey’s origin, since honey also contains small amounts of pollen, whose shape, size and color indicates the type of plant it comes from.