Cannabis is a wind pollinated plant and contains no floral nectar, a requirement for bees to create honey. Bees cannot pass cannabinoids into honey simply by landing on cannabis.
They needed a little help
By using a special formulated syrup, we were able to feed a single hive 20,000 milligrams of THC. With such a high level of THC the health of the hive was in question. An article written in 2001 assured us that bees would be unphased by THC because of a lack of CB receptors. All cannabinoids should, in theory, be passed thru the bees and into their honey.
Four hives were purchased and set up all at the same time. Our beekeeper was nervous the experiment would kill the hive, so the weakest and smallest one was selected. The test hive was fed our special syrup while the other three hives were fed a simple syrup.
Instead of hurting the hive just the opposite happened, the test hive flourished. It quickly became the strongest and largest. Its honey, wax, and brood production thrived and it was the first hive to fill its box. Frames were removed and added to the other hives to boost their production. The test hive was also the only hive to swarm and create a new queen, the natural way of reproduction for strong bee colonies
Both the resulting honey and the propolis were tested at Sequoia Analytical Labs in Sacramento Ca. The propolis contained 1.39% cannabinoids with half being THC and the other CBD. Just one ounce of honey contained 16.29 milligrams of THC, 2.92 milligrams of CBD and 3.12 milligrams of CBN, and it tastes amazing.
The Bees Successfully Infused their Honey with Cannabis Oil
Productivity Increased and the Cannabis had a Positive Impact on Hive Growth
