What do bees need pollen for? I thought bees just got bukkaked as an co-evolutionary repayment for the nectar they’re jacking?
Comment on meat honey
alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 12 hours ago
Ok, as I understood it, there is “edible honey” that is really plant-based, and “carrion meat-based protein storage” that kind of works like pollen storage in honeybees nest. TBH, I find pollen more nutritional and tasty than honey. And I know that honey bees are opportunistic carnivores too. These things kind of come together in a story better left untold.
Windex007@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
pennomi@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
I’ve seen people turn bright red and itchy after eating pollen, presumably it’s a likely allergen?
alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 11 hours ago
It totally is! I’m allergic to several types of pollen, also I live in the middle of the forest and am a beekeeper. My stomach hurts when I eat that stuff. Nothing of this stops me; I also love Spring. I feel quite sick now, too (well, cold weather came back and it’s a bit easier than 2 days ago). Good that I have mild allergy, I’d be dead by now if I had it hard. When birch flowers unusually hard, I sometimes have a symptom that feels like how people describe asthma.
Maybe some day I’ll get desensibilized enough, after eating this stuff regularly. Maybe I’ll die trying.
My neighbor doctor - also a beekeeper - says that many people who perceive honey as slightly spicy actually get allergic reaction from traces of pollen in it. He also thinks my strategy of eating pollen to overcome allergy should eventually work; I think I just like the taste too much to stop.
The trick with pollen I’ve discovered is that as soon as it is extracted from the honeycomb, it starts quickly degrading; whenever it’s sold, it’s bleak tasteless flavorless powder, not even close to explosion of flavor that happens when you chew on a fresh blob right from the honeycomb (usually with the honeycomb, who cares, it’s edible too. Almost everything inside the nest is edible, apart form the frames and other human-made nonsense). Apparently you can get the stuff only from an actual beekeeper (or by raiding wild bees nest probably, I think it’s not a good idea though), and I only figured it out when I started keeping bees!
crazycraw@crazypeople.online 11 hours ago
the thing is, eating the honey from the local area where you have allergies, helps your system build a tolerance to inflammation when encountering it.
i can only anecdotally claim “it helped me!” but it’s not like a universal allergy relief.
i would have thought you would have observed a difference to -something by now.
alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 11 hours ago
I guess it’s getting a bit easier by the year; but I mean, until it’s gone completely, I couldn’t really tell. I’m basing my “strategy” on same anecdotic knowledge you mentioned, although I’ve never seen it proven right or wrong in a methodical research; I don’t really care, it’s not that if I know it for certain anything will change, I’ll just keep living here and eat the stuff.
Zoot@reddthat.com 11 hours ago
You have me dying to go out an try pollen, though I know for a fact I’m allergic already lol. Hay fever and spring allergies leave me a.mess but darn it if I don’t want to go an eat pollen now!
alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 11 hours ago
Mind you, as far as I understand, bees convert it a bit too, so it might be somewhat slightly less aggressive than just flying particles in the air or sniffing a flower. Kind of “allergic vaccine” if that mechanism works, which, again, I’m not certain about.