Bees and cannabis?

Discussion in 'Science and Nature' started by matlock, Feb 28, 2012.

  1. I was watching the tv show weeds with a friend when a question came up, if honey bees made a comb around a crop of cannabis plants would the honey they create then have the in it? Would the bees absorb the the in the pollen and get high? I have no idea
     
  2. I have no idea but it might repel them.

    Imagine eating a trichome the size of your face hahaha

    And the plant wouldnt grow right with shit all over it
     

  3. I dont think you understood what the OP was saying or how honey is produced lol


    there are a lot of scientists/historians who believe the mythical drink "ambrosia" the nectar of the gods was created by having honey bee hives next to cannabis/hemp fields. The honey that is produced from that area then contains thc, that the ancient greeks would mix into a wine with euphoric like feelings.

    Honey picks up attributes from the plants it is around. Thats why "clove" honey is very popular.
    Different honey from different areas will have different tastes and smells depending on the plants the bees collected the honey from.

    Scientists have even been studying if honey made from certain plants might have beneficial medicinal properties.
     
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  4. Who woulda thought that clove means cannabis :) Good info.
     
  5. [quote name='"ILLOGIK"']

    I dont think you understood what the OP was saying or how honey is produced lol
    [/quote]

    Lol i guess not.
     


  6. LOL no sorry I dont think I was clear enough.

    "clove" doesn't mean "cannabis"

    I was just talking about regular normal honey. A lot of regular normal honey is "clove honey" The hives are next to real actual clove fields. The cloves give the honey a more floral uniform flavor and taste.

    If you ever get honey from farmers/apple orchards, sometimes you'll notice it has completely different flavors from that of store honey.


    But the mythical drink ambrosia, was made from honey that was located in cannabis/hemp fields.
     
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  7. I have bee hives in my back yard. I wish I could legally grow cannabis plants in proximity to see if the honey is special. This is so cool, I can't wait until it's legal and I can try it out. :hello::hello::hello:
     

  8. I see, my mistake. So is such a drink possible? There must be some grower in Cali making some fresh ambrosia :smoke:
     

  9. I've heard before that there are some people who make it/have made it out in the Washington/Oregon. But never have had a confirmed story on it.

    I'm suprised no one has tried it in medicinal states, or over in the middlle east/asia/south america where they have large outdoor grows.

    Maybe the process was lost some how over the years. From what I read, the process seems pretty straight forward. But maybe you have to have huge crops of weed/hemp in order to make sure the honey has a high enough THC count high enough to be potent.

    Also, I'm not sure if you would have to have both male and female plants to produce enough pollen for the bees. If you need male and female plants, it would make sense why we haven't seen it tried here in America. People aren't going to want to risk contaminating a whole field and get a seedy crop just so they can try to produce honey infused with THC.

    But in places like mexico/south america/the middle east, where they dont care about males pollinating crop, it might be more feasible.
     
  10. THC is contained in the flower buds in the tricomes, which are kinda like little glands all over the petals.

    It is very sticky. It is likely if a bee took pollen from a marijuana flower it would get resin on it. This resin might even make its way into the honey.

    Now most of you know it has to be activated. Usualy done by cooking or smoking. You dont get high from eating it raw.

    I dont know if the honey making process destroys it, or perhaps activates it, but one thing is for sure. If there are raw tricomes in the honey, mixing it with alcohol will activate it.

    So this mythical drink soundz scientifically phesable to me, provided enough tricomes are collected to make a practical concentration and assuming honey making emzyms dont break them down.
     
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  11. well lets get mythbusters on this!! oh wait...
     
  12. Would love to take a warehouse grow and put a few hives in for study purposes, but then I got to thinking....

    Bees drink nectar from flowers and collect pollen to take back to the hive to make honey. Male flowers on marijuana plants produce the pollen, female plants produce sticky trichromes to catch the pollen. The female plant might actually trap the bees where they would die. And I'm not sure the would be enough THC in the male pollen to be of any effect. May have to talk with some bee keepers and see if it's plausible.
     
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  13. now i want weed infused mead. never drank mead before but fermented honey water sounds pretty great lol.
     
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  14. lol hell yea it does!!

    I've had mead a bunch of times. Its pretty damn good stuff.
     
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  15. Nope. Cannabis is not an insect-pollinated plant.

    It doesnt create nectar. However they do make pollen.

    That's actually an early warning sign of a male plant, when bees start rolling around on them.
     

  16. dont really understand why you're saying "nope" then, and then say male plants make pollen.

    bees collect pollen and nectar....cannabis isn't an insect pollinated plant... but that has nothing to do with whether or not bees still collect pollen and nectar from a plant.

    Perfect example.... corn. Wind pollinated plant. but you'll still find bees all over them in my garden.
     


  17. Corn is the devil's lies.
     
  18. I'm new. Long time reader and lurker here. And beekeeper. I haven't grown any beneficial weeds in my garden since the 70's, but I am now, and there is a weed plant to be located right outside of my bee hive this year.

    Bees eat and collect pollen and nectar to bring home to feed the bee larva. It is unlikely that they would be harmed by the trichomes, or get stuck to it since they are used to dealing with honey, which can be pretty sticky stuff. They move it all over inside the hive all the time, and cap it off with wax for later use when the % of water content is perfect. They know when that happens the honey is impervious to just about anything, is full of antibiotics, and won't spoil.

    We had a similar question going around our local bee group last year, but instead of marijuana we were concerned that "datura" or "Jimson Weed" (which as many of you may know has it's own psychoactive properties), would pass on it's properties in honey. While we could not come up with a definitive answer, no one had any weird experience from the honey, and for many of us the datura in our yards is one of the main sources of food in the fall.

    But I'll let you know what happens. In all likelihood the bees don't collect the trichomes because they have no use for them. It's not pollen, and it's not nectar. Bees are pretty specific about what they bring home, unlike my kids.

    I've never heard that "ambrosia" could contain THC. I think it is more likely to have contained thuja (what's in Absinthe), because it's easier and more likely to have been distilled and added than THC.
     
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  19. I wonder if the THC would be any sort of irritant to the bee? I have never had the pleasure of seeing a bee on a MJ plant.
     
  20. Good question, but not sure. I'm thinking not harmful, but you may not see the bees on the plants because there is nothing, in their mind, to draw them there, especially if there are plants with nectar within 2 miles (their range for foraging). The nectar is what draws in the pollinators, not nectar, no draw. Generally speaking, plants with red flowers have lots of nectar - that's why hummingbirds are attracted to red. Pollinators are also attracted to sweet - which explains why the person with the corn plants saw so many bees on them. And the loads of pollen.

    Bees have an incredible sense of smell, and communicate with scent. Contrary to popular opinion, using smoke on the bees doen't hurt them or put them to sleep, it just interferes with communication and the scent is not transmitted or recieved that says "we're under attack - go get 'em!"

    In response to another thread about bees - please don't kill a colony that has taken up residence in your yard or home. Just look up your local bee club through the county extension bureau in your area, and they will put you in touch with beekeepers that will be more than happy to come get them. If you must kill a colony, use soapy water, not chemical insecticides.

    Yellow Jackets are not bees - they're hornets, and don't make honey and don't play nice.
     

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