
Bees Making Honey with Cannabis - vinchuco
https://greenrushdaily.com/2016/03/03/bees-making-honey-from-cannabis/
======
valine
I can see see some good marketing opportunities for this. I would call it
Honey Pot.

~~~
sachingulaya
Amusingly, there is already a popular cannabis-infused honey for sale in
California under the brand name 'Honey Pot'.

~~~
giltleaf
Yeah, I know about THC honey, so what's the difference between this and that;
how is that made differently from above?

~~~
fennecfoxen
The difference appears to be that THC honey actually contains THC, unlike this
honey, which merely contains its precursors in low quantities.

------
dfraser992
I 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
I 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.

------
vitno
I'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.

~~~
simonebrunozzi
Bees collect pollen, not nectar.

~~~
DrScump
They _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
Bees absolutely collect pollen, they even have special pollen ball holding
cups on their legs. They also collect nectar, in their stomach.

~~~
hollander
They 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
> 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).

------
brahmwg
In 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
I don't see the added medicinal value of cannabis honey, relative to existing
forms of cannabis.

~~~
brahmwg
My 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.

------
Stratoscope
I 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-t...](http://www.marijuanagrowershq.com/decarboxylating-cannabis-
turning-thca-into-thc/)

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?

~~~
muloka
So the heat from the pasteurization of this honey could theoretically activate
the THC?

~~~
Stratoscope
Someone 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.

------
SeanDav
I 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!

~~~
jakejake
The 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.

------
Hydraulix989
Do the bees get high too?

~~~
taternuts
No - “The bees that produce the cannahoney are not affected by cannabinoids
because they do not have an endocannabinoid system”

------
copser
I say, braking bad award of the year for Mrs Nicholas and his bees.

------
bitwize
Now 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
Sounds tiresome.

