CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND NUTRITIVE VALUE OF BEE-COLLECTED AND BEE-STORED POLLEN

Abstract

When fresh pollen and bee-stored pollen extracted from brood combs of free-flying colonies were offered to caged colonies of bees, there appeared to be no difference in nutritive value judged by the number of bees reared to the sealed stage. Bee bread and pollen from seven locations were analyzed for’moisture, protein, reducing and nonreducing sugars, lipids, sulfated ash, starch, pH, pectins and crude fiber. The levels of protein, samples of pollen (mean value of moisture, and lipids differed little between pollen and bee bread. However, there was no detectable starch in any of the samples of bee bread; and starch was present in all seven 1.77 %). In addition, bee bread contained higher levels of reducing sugar and crude fiber than pollen but lower levels of ash. The ash of all pollen samples ranged between 2.4 and 3.4 % of the dry weight. The pH of bee bread averaged 4.1 compared with 4.8 for pollen. The percentage of undetermined matter in pollen and bee bread averaged less than 10 % of the dry weight.