How many bees died to make my pollen smoothie?

Matt:

Bee-ing a concerned smoothie drinker, me and a few colleagues were wondering what the actual process was in collecting bee pollen that we use in our smoothies. A few of us were hoping that the bees were not being injured in extracting the pollen.

-- C, the net

Just as baby oil is not oil squeezed from babies, bee pollen is not pollen squeezed from bees. Smoothie technology is not built on the suffering of our insect brothers. So-called bee pollen ins, of course, plant pollen that sticks to bees' legs when they forage in blossoms for nectar. It's carried back to the hive to be stored, like the nectar, as food for the colony. Beekeepers use specially constructed hive boxes that force the hunter-gatherer bees to enter through a screen that knocks some of the pollen off their sturdy worker legs and into a collecting tray. The whole process is buzzer-friendly and nonviolent. Peace and juice, dude.