Ok. I’m not a beekeeper.
I thought about it a few years ago. Being the lazy ass I am, I decided too much work for something I could barely have a taste of. I am not the salesperson type enough to go into a little side hustle honey business.
Tossed it outta my head.
Now, tho’ I was thinking. I had heard thru the grapevine a neighbor-ish guy was planting big acreage of marijuana. He’s got all his permits and legal stuff handled. It’s becoming big business around here.
If I had been industrious enough to do “Beck’s Best Bee Boops” (cute, right?) how would marijuana on an industrial level have affected my bees?
Would they be high all the time? Lazy on the couch watching Dog TV and happy.
Would the honey suffer or sell really well at the Farmers market?
Would honey production change?
If any one knows or cares to guess? I need answers.
Cannabis plants are wind pollinated, not bee pollinated. Bees do visit male plants in late summer/early fall when other nectar/pollen-rich plants are no longer blooming. But cannabis flowers don’t have nectar, so honey is not produced from cannabis plants. Bees also don’t have cannabinoid receptors, so they don’t catch a “buzz”.
Side note - my wife wanted to keep bees on our property many years ago. But after checking our current Homeowner’s carrier wouldn’t cover any associated risk (may or may not have dropped the policy, but would have excluded bee-based injuries) and one of the other carriers we checked were the same.
Back to MJ bees though - many honey varietals pick up distinct hints from the flowers they visit, which often (not always) reflect the taste/odor of the plant in question. Considering the odor I associate with MJ… that might be some skunky smelling honey. But as @dorjan correctly points out: no nectar, no MJ honey fundamentally.
My dad kept bees on our property before I was born. According to family lore, the few hives he had were destroyed after a nearby neighbor, who was a cop, got tired of being stung so often.
I mean, there are a ton of places that sell CBD infused honey here in Colorado, or, of course, you can make your own. So if that’s what you’re searching for and you live in / visit a permissive state you can find it.
I had heard thru the grapevine a neighbor-ish guy was planting big acreage of marijuana. He’s got all his permits and legal stuff handled. It’s becoming big business around here.
