Making flour from bees

[SpaceDog]

Hi all,

A friend, last night, in the pub, was telling me that you can make bread out of bees. Normal regular honey bees. Apparently you roast 'em in the oven until they’re crunchy then crush them to a fine power and use it as you would flour. Presto, Bee Bread ! I was convinced that this was a wind-up until I searched the web today and found this page : http://www.fao.org/docrep/w0076e/w0076e19.htm

Near the bottom, in section 8.10.6, that page says:

Bees should be dry-roasted or sun-dried as above and reduced (in an electric blender) to a fine powder. For those relying on manual skills, grind or pound until all insects are reduced to a fine powder. This powder can be further enriched with equally fine ground dry pollen pellets or can be mixed directly with any other flour, dough, bread, vegetable dish or soup.

So, anyone heard of this before ? Ever made bee flour ? Would you eat bread made from bee flour ?

[jjimm]

Can’t say that I have, but do the bees contain gluten, or a gluten-like substance? Coz any edible powder can simulate flour, but only certain ones can actually simulate the protein strings caused by the gluten in flour.

The nearest I’ve come to this was when I stopped at a roadside food stand in northern Thailand, and there was a guy selling roast bees. They were served hot in a little paper cone, and people were eating them like crisps.