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Bees Making Honey with Cannabis
- bitwize 11y agoNow I'm imagining a CG cartoon film about stoned bees starring Andy Samberg or somebody. "Dude, like, why do we gotta serve the queen anyway? Don't you get it man? She's part of the system -- the system that oppresses us. Whoa, this is good shit."
- monochromatic 11y agoSounds tiresome.
- vitno 11y agoI'm... skeptical. Cannabis doesn't produce nectar, so bees won't be attracted to it. They might be interested in resin, so as to make propolis... but I doubt any cannaboids would turn up in the honey. Disclaimer: I don't keep bees, but I've been looking into it. Someone with more experience might know more, listen to them. It'd be cool if this worked.
- datashaman 11y agoAnd yet, I guarantee you it will be shrink-wrapped and mythologized by the health industry anyway.
- gcb0 11y agowell the article mention "hundreds of health benefits" for honey, which the science, even the pseudo science, agree there is none. it's just a fancier sugar. so yes, you're certainly right.
- andredublin 11y agoI kept bees for almost a year now. They may go for the pollen and resin like you said, and miss out on the nectar.
- simonebrunozzi 11y agoBees collect pollen, not nectar.
- 8note 11y agobees turn nectar into honey
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- DanBC 11y agoAll bees collect nectar. Some bees collect pollen - although all bees need it.
- DrScump 11y agoThey distribute pollen via mechanical side-effects (on their legs and bodies), but that is not their goal. That effect is the plant's goal, which is why it produces nectar - to lure them. It's the original Sharing Economy.
- wazoox 11y agoBees absolutely collect pollen, they even have special pollen ball holding cups on their legs. They also collect nectar, in their stomach.
- hollander 11y agoThey distribute pollen to pay for the honey. The better they do it, the more flowers, the more honey. But in the end they are not going to complain individually if there is no pollen. They will of there is no honey.
- SmellyGeekBoy 11y ago> But in the end they are not going to complain individually if there is no pollen. I keep bees and they absolutely do store pollen in the hive to use as food (as well as nectar to turn into honey).
- OldSchoolJohnny 11y agoYes you should be skeptical. Even if there were any scintilla of truth to this cannabinoids have no effect on humans until they are decarboxylated so this would have no effect if eaten anyway.
- brahmwg 11y agoIn nature, the male cannabis flower's pollen is carried by wind and gets stuck on the female's sticky resin. Cannabis is wind pollinated, so the beekeeper had to have trained these bees to ingest cannabis pollen (couldn't have been too hard, i'm sure most enjoy a good 'buzz'). I'd be very curious about the luxury cannabis honey industry. You can already buy honey made from wild flower or specific flowers like blueberry or other exotic flowers. I wonder if in a few years we will be able to buy honey made from specific cannabis strains. Given that honey is absorbed very readily into the body, using specific strains of cannabis honey may have real medicinal value, for fast action pain relief for instance. Disclaimer: Not a medical professional, or a bee professional, nor a cannabis professional.
- gizmo686 11y agoI don't see the added medicinal value of cannabis honey, relative to existing forms of cannabis.
- brahmwg 11y agoMy thought was since honey is absorbed quickly perhaps the medicinal effects could be fast acting. As opposed to with edibles which would take longer to produce an effect. Of course, inhaling it via smoke or vaporizer would be instant action, but many medicinal users would prefer to avoid inhalants like smoking. The benefit of instant action would be for people that have seizures or spasms, or need quick pain relief. Again, not a medical professional, just thinking out loud.
- DanBC 11y agoYou're comparing types of cannabis, but you should be comparing types of honey. Some honey has already been medicalised - Manuka honey is used in burns dressings for example. There's a bunch of adulteration and poor quality product in honey, so these niches are useful for people creating a higher quality product.
- dfraser992 11y agoPlease see my comment - I'm sure there is some way to infuse honey with THC or CBD, but I haven't heard of anything. And the cannabis related market hardly needs any more overhyped overpriced products... CBD is useful, but a lot of products are garbage. This article is all blather and little actual facts.
- valine 11y agoI can see see some good marketing opportunities for this. I would call it Honey Pot.
- sachingulaya 11y agoAmusingly, there is already a popular cannabis-infused honey for sale in California under the brand name 'Honey Pot'.
- giltleaf 11y agoYeah, I know about THC honey, so what's the difference between this and that; how is that made differently from above?
- fennecfoxen 11y agoThe difference appears to be that THC honey actually contains THC, unlike this honey, which merely contains its precursors in low quantities.
- sachingulaya 11y agoI was specifically referring to the brand name and I, unfortunately, can't speak to the differences with never having seen the bee pollinated honey seen in the article. I will shed some light on THC infused honey (and edibles in general). Edibles are typically made from the lowest quality part of the plant known as 'trim'. For edibles the typical choice is ethanol for extraction which also extracts and concentrates any pesticides or sulfur used(sulfur burns are used as a pesticide alternative). Then that extract has solvent removed via rotary evaporation and that oil is mixed with honey and packaged in someone's warehouse. You'll often see honey and THC separate into two visible fractions if effort wasn't put into proper formulation. For the honey in the article the beekeeper is hoping the trichromes(THC containing) of the marijuana plant will be carried and incorporated into the honey. I highly doubt this will work unless there are other instances of pollen products showing up in honey...but it's great marketing.
- jksmith 11y ago
- Stratoscope 11y agoI would expect the raw cannabis honey to have almost no THC, because it hasn't gone through decarboxylation. Raw cannabis has THCA but very little THC. Heating it releases the carboxyl group (COOH) and turns the THCA into THC. This happens naturally when cannabis is smoked or vaporized or made into a cooked edible. Eating raw cannabis won't get you very high. https://www.google.com/search?q=cannabis+decarboxylation https://www.google.com/search?q=cannabis+decarboxylation This page has some interesting test results: http://www.marijuanagrowershq.com/decarboxylating-cannabis-turning-thca-into-thc/ http://www.marijuanagrowershq.com/decarboxylating-cannabis-t... It looks like something similar happens with CBDA turning into CBD. The cannabis strain they used in the tests didn't have much CBD[A] in it to begin with; it would be interesting to see what happens with a CBD-rich strain. Does anyone happen to know more about this?
- ajcarpy2005 11y agoThe body can certainly metabolize raw THC, especially when consumed with a fat substrate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11-nor-9-Carboxy-THC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11-nor-9-Carboxy-THC
- s0ulphire 11y agoIt's not talking about THCA (2-COOH-THC) which is what raw cannabis contains - eating it won't do anything unless you decarboxylate first. But yes, if (after the decarb) you bind it to a fat substrate (e.g. butter, oil etc) then you'll metabolize it.
- muloka 11y agoSo the heat from the pasteurization of this honey could theoretically activate the THC?
- Stratoscope 11y agoSomeone who knows more than me (OldSchoolJohnny?) could answer this better, but I think the pasteurization temperature for honey is too low. The references I've seen indicate a temperature of 145-150° F for honey, and more like 230-240° F for carboxylation.
- copser 11y agoI say, braking bad award of the year for Mrs Nicholas and his bees.
- dfraser992 11y agoI work for CLEAR UK (clear-uk.org), a non-profit campaigning for the legalization of medicinal cannabis in the UK. When we put this article on our news feed, we got a comment from a beekeeper -- "Well, cannabis is wind pollinated, as you probably know. This means it does not produce anything attractive to pollinators. This is especially true with the cannabis plant, as the flowers do not produce a nectar of any kind. This 'beekeeper' is spraying sugar water on the buds to get the bees to work them. His theory is that the trichomes that are inadvertently picked up are going to be stored in the propolis, that he smokes, and also in the honey. The problem with the honey is that the trichomes would not be decarboxylated, thus not converting the thc-a into thc, thus having no psychoactive effect. It would be like eating raw weed...you would need to eat a ton, and the effects would be minimal, depending on the strain. Most strains have virtually no thc readily available. The problem with smoking propolis is enormous, especially if you know what it is. It is basically sap from pine trees and such that the bees masticate and turn into a type of caulking for their hives. While it does have some serious antimicrobial properties, the amount of thc in the propolis would be minimal and you would be mostly smoking pine sap...surely, you can see the issue. While male plants do produce a pollen, it is of low quality to a bee and definitely does not contain any cannabinoids. My husband has been in direct contact with Nicolas trainerbee. He admits that he sprays the buds with sugar to film the bees working it...so, not only is he ruining a perfectly good harvest of cannabis, he is spreading disinformation to the beekeeping and cannabis communities." "Training" bees, indeed.... As others have pointed out, the logic of this actually accomplishing anything is likely nil. If you read the article closely, you'll see it actually has very little content - it reads well, but it's more marketing fluff than anything. I don't want to write an essay here, so I won't explain further, but read it closely. Unfortunately, the implication of THC-infused honey is going to drive the 'cannabis cures cancer' contingent mad (with desire) and Mr. Trainerbee is going to make some serious money... THC-infused Golden Manuka Honey! I really loathe all the @$%^^ going on in the cannabis related markets, but that is the essence or nature of capitalism...
- tingol 11y agoI don't think it's a cannabis related issue, people have been buying 'natural healing' type of stuff for thousands of years without any regard for the science behind it.
- Hydraulix989 11y agoDo the bees get high too?
- taternuts 11y agoNo - “The bees that produce the cannahoney are not affected by cannabinoids because they do not have an endocannabinoid system”
- SeanDav 11y agoI am highly sceptical of his claim of "training" bees. He may make the plants and resin available and bees will tend to go for the closest convenient source, but much beyond that, I don't really believe. I am happy to be proved wrong of course, as it would be kind of awesome to have a set of trained bees doing one's bidding!
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- jakejake 11y agoThe word "trained" does seem dubious as if the bees were taught to obey commands! More likely the bees were "persuaded" to use cannabis by either proximity of the plants and/or treating the plants in some way to attract the bees.
- bigpoppa 11y agoD.A.R.E.