Queen bee
Bee pollen before and after
Bee pollen hayfever.
Bee pollen
Ball of pollen gathered by worker honeybees
Bee pollen, also known as bee bread and ambrosia,[1] is a ball or pellet of field-gathered flower pollen packed by worker honeybees, and used as the primary food source for the hive.
It consists of simple sugars, protein, minerals and vitamins, fatty acids, and a small percentage of other components. Bee pollen is stored in brood cells, mixed with saliva, and sealed with a drop of honey.[2] Bee pollen is harvested as food for humans and marketed as having various, but yet unproven, health benefits.[3]
Details
In honeybees (Apis species) pollen is stored in the chambers of the hives.
It differs from field-gathered pollen as honeybee secretions induce a fermentation process, where biochemical transformations break down the walls of flower pollen grains and render the nutrients more readily available.[4]
Forager bees that gather pollen do not eat it themselves,