by Nebula Haze
Many outdoor growers have seen bees flying around cannabis plants. Do bees pollinate cannabis plants? What is the exact relationship between bees and cannabis or hemp? Find out today!
The Relationship Between Weed and Bees
Bees are often seen buzzing around cannabis flowers and pollen sacs. But why?
Many growers have seen bees hanging around cannabis plants. Bumblebees are so cute 🙂
Cannabis plants usually don’t produce nectar, which bees need to eat to make honey, but male cannabis plants do produce pollen and their pollen offer nutritional value. Some bees seem interested in some plants, but overall it doesn’t seem like bees are particularly attracted to cannabis.
What are bees attracted to about cannabis plants?
- Pollen – Some bees eat pollen from male cannabis plants, especially if there are not a lot of other sources of nutrition in the area.
- Drink water – If the plant was recently watered, they may be drinking water from irrigation. Bees get thirsty!
- Sap – May be attracted to the very rare instances when certain strains of cannabis plants produce a sugary sap.
- Trichomes – Perhaps some aspects of the trichomes attract them, for example maybe bees collect resin for the purpose of making propolis (important for repairing, cleaning, and maintaining the hive).
- Something else – It’s possible there is something else going on that attracts bees to cannabis. More research is needed!
Do Bees Pollinate Cannabis Plants?
Cannabis is a wind-pollinated plant, so it is unlikely that bees play much of a role in cannabis pollination. But if they are buzzing from pollen sacs to flowers, it is likely they pollinate cannabis or hemp sometimes.
Male cannabis plants produce pollen, which is edible to bees. When the pollen sacs open up in the fall, some bees feast on it, like this European honeybee.
Do Bees Get “High” from the THC in Cannabis?
No. At least not that anyone has been able to measure yet. Bees do not have an endocannabinoid system to react with cannabinoids in their body. It seems to get passed right through. This leads to the next point…
Can Bee Honey Contain THC from Cannabis Flowers in the Area?
Naturally? Probably not. It does not seem like bees typically eat enough of the cannabis plant that contains cannabinoids for it to make it to their honey.
Pollen is the main part of cannabis that bees eat in the wild, and pollen typically contains very low levels of cannabinoids.
Bees may also be attracted to sap produced by cannabis, but sap production is rare in cannabis plants.
Sap is usually only produced by specific strains if the plant is under stress or if there is an injury to the “skin” of the plant. Sometimes sap oozes out when cannabis plants are getting fed a lot of sugar in their water (for example from sugary supplements).
Unfortunately, in tests, this sap seems to contain mostly sugar and little THC or other cannabinoids. That means it is unlikely to provide much THC to any bees that snack on it.
In rare instances, certain cannabis strains may produce sap, which may attract honeybees. However, this sap also doesn’t contain much THC, so little is passed to the bees.
However, feeding bees with cannabinoid-rich cannabis extracts does produce honey that contains cannabinoids. The bees essentially extract the cannabinoids and some of them pass through into the honey. But even when bees are fed high-cannabinoid food, the overall cannabinoid levels in their honey stay extremely low.
Want to learn more about honey bees and cannabis plants?
Check out this excellent article by Sharon Schmidt, a beekeeper who investigated the interactions between her bees and the outdoor cannabis plants from a nearby farm.
Learn more: Bees and Cannabis by Sharon Schmidt
