Bees: It's What's For Dinner.

I recently saw people on another website talking about eating bees and what they tasted like! I was so weirded out but very intrigued! Have any of you permies eaten bees? Apparently it is not as uncommon as I would have thought!

Hi Cassie,
well I didn't try them yet, but I recently stumbled across a recipe for drone larvae. (roast them in a pan with a little sprinkle of honey) That was in a german bee keepers forum. So actually, not so uncommon as one might expect. Eating insects is otherwise very uncommon in our region.

Yeah that is true, I am sure this is a very region to region dependent question. Is it weird that I envisioned a bee growing inside of me if I ever ate larvae? Haha!

Is it weird that I envisioned a bee growing inside of me if I ever ate larvae?

probably as weird as envisioning growing chickens inside you, if you ever eat an egg.

Ludger Merkens wrote:
probably as weird as envisioning growing chickens inside you, if you ever eat an egg.

Touche my friend. Touche.

don't be mad with me. It is sometimes difficult to be entirely reasonable if it comes to food. I couldn't overcome my hesitations to eat drone larvae either.

No I am not mad at you at all! That phrase means "well done, you have proved me wrong", well that is what I understood it to mean. I am just saying that you are right, eating a larvae is not much different than eating an egg when you think about it.

a friend of mine said honey bee larvae taste a lot like coconut. she also mentioned that when bears knock over hives, they're more interested in the larvae than the honey. I haven't heard that confirmed anywhere else, but it doesn't sound so unreasonable.

tel jetson wrote:...when bears knock over hives, they're more interested in the larvae than the honey.

I've heard that too. Can't remember the source though.

Also, when my husband was a teenager he worked in a German deli and he said they had chocolate covered bees for sale.

Yeah, I mean it would make sense...for bears... Haha humans though? I guess I am really going to have to force myself to let go of my stigma about eating insects!

Cassie Langstraat wrote:I recently saw people on another website talking about eating bees and what they tasted like! I was so weirded out but very intrigued! Have any of you permies eaten bees? Apparently it is not as uncommon as I would have thought!

I almost tried one. I had a glass of tea outside with me while working in the garden. I picked it up without looking inside and took a big drink. I quickly noticed a foreign object in the tea solution, which was inside my mouth. I swished it a few times trying to figure out what it was. Not being able to identify it, I decided it was safer to spit it out and waste a bit of tea, than to swallow whatever was swimming in the tea. Upon spitting it out, I noticed a damp bee on the ground where the tea landed. I think we were both surprised.

Hahaha! Whoa, good thing it didn't sting you in the mouth! That would not have been a good time at all!

That reminds me of a story my slaughterer told me. He said the state bee inspector would sometimes take a few bees, remove their stingers, and then put them in his mouth right before getting out of his car to do an inspection. He would then knock on the door and introduce himself and start talking and bees would start flying out of his mouth! He got reprimanded when one lady without a sense of humor complained to the state.

LOL oh my god, that is the best thing I have heard all day! Thanks for sharing.

Somehow I wound up at this site where they talk about eating pure (virgin) honey v brood honey. That'd be a way of tip toeing into eating bees.

Hmm, interesting stuff. At this point I would definitely rather eat honeycomb than full bees! But maybe my tastes will change!

Cj Verde wrote:Somehow I wound up at this site where they talk about eating pure (virgin) honey v brood honey. That'd be a way of tip toeing into eating bees.

there are cocoons left over in brood comb honey, but there shouldn't be any actual brood. unless, of course, one wants to eat brood. it would spoil very quickly, though, so eating it up immediately after removal would be the way to go.

for those wanting to try it out (anyone?), getting the bees off of brood is much more difficult than getting them off of honeycomb.

getting the bees off of brood is much more difficult than getting them off of honeycomb.

You can use the big feathers of the wing of a goose as a very gentle brush, to brush of the bees. A single feather is already enough.

Slightly OT but I was a little surprised watching the little promo video of the bees at the white house and they used a blower to blow the bees off the comb! Regular honey comb, I presume.

That part is a 1M 31S (couldn't get it to start from there)

Ludger Merkens wrote:
You can use the big feathers of the wing of a goose as a very gentle brush, to brush of the bees. A single feather is already enough.

Good trick. Never heard of this before.

I use turkey feathers. better than a brush, but they're still rather tenacious.