Pure pollen, vegetable cellulose capsule.

What Is Bee Pollen?

Worker honeybees made bee pollen from pollen gathered from flowers. It is used as the primary food source for bees in the hive. Bee Pollen contains sugars, protein, vitamins, and minerals along with some fatty acids. It is sometimes called bee bread and is stored within the cells of the beehive. The bees seal it into the cells using a drop of honey. It is harvested as a supplement for humans in a similar way to honey. Scientific research continues into its health properties.

Bee Pollen differs from field-gathered pollen as bees introduce an enzyme that induces a fermentation process. Biochemical transformations break down the walls of flower pollen grains making the nutrients more readily available. The forager bees that gather pollen do not eat it themselves. This is because they stop producing the proteolytic enzymes necessary to digest it when they transition to foraging. The forager bees put the gathered pollen directly into open cells located at the interface between the brood and stored honey, creating a typical band of what is called bee bread. Foraging bees bring pollen back to the hive, where they pass it off to worker bees. These bees pack the pollen into cells with their heads.

During collection and possibly packing, the pollen is mixed with nectar and bee salivary secretions. Bee pollen is the primary source of protein for the hive. Bees other than Apis typically form pollen into balls; these are primarily ground-nesting bees or twig-nesting bees, most of which are solitary, such as leafcutter bees. With the leafcutter bee, as in most such bees, when the pollen ball is complete, the female lays an egg on top of the pollen ball and seals the brood cell. The egg hatches and the larva consumes the pollen directly; the bee pollen is not stored separately from the brood.

Bee pollen is taken as a food supplement and Pollen Capsules are a convenient way to store and consume pollen.