You can't milk a chicken

One of the problems with the Internet today is disinformation can be spread very quickly especially if it appeals to a lot of people and once accepted by the public consciousness it's very hard to counter with facts and hard evidence no matter how much you present. At the moment 'Cannabis Honey' is causing a big stir on the net. A French chap claims to be making it and his video has gone viral, however whatever he thinks he's doing he's definitely not making honey from cannabis, and in this post I'll tell you why..

First off honey is made from bee gathered nectar (or honeydew) but cannabis is a wind pollinated plant so the flowers have no nectaries to produce nectar. Trying to get nectar from cannabis would be like trying to milk a chicken.

On Facebook someone pulled the fella up on the lack of nectar and he responded that they're actually making propolis from cannabis resin which he thinks infuses the honey. Bees certainly can make propolis from cannabis plants however as THC and CBD aren't water soluble you could smear it on the comb yourself and you're still not going to infuse any honey with it. And that's ignoring the fact bees don't routinely slather propolis over the honey cells anyway.

Looking on his Facebook profile, page and Instagram account there's a lot of close up pictures and some videos of bees on cannabis plants and on his plants and they're certainly doing something, but bearing in mind he's saying they're gathering propolis it's very strange that none of the bees are actually carrying propolis. It's easy to see if a bee is carrying propolis as they pack it into the long hairs on their back legs making it look like they have motorcycle panniers. On the beekeeping forum a few people have suggested the bees are actually collecting honey that's been put on the plants or maybe being fed syrup with a cannabis extract already in it. Given the plants don't make nectar and the bees aren't actually carrying resin or pollen I'm inclined to go with those theories too.

Things get even more suspicious when you look at his photos of honey comb. Below is a photo of some regular honey comb from my bees in which the bees, inserted in the lower left is a photo of the cannabis honey comb.

Spot the difference

Notice how clean the wax on the regular comb is? No red or brown propolis on there. Also the stored nectar is uniform in the same liquid state, no crystals visible. Looking at the insert you can see a green flecked liquid with the crystals in it adhering to the edges of the cells. This isn't normal, it's also not propolis, probably worth noting cannabis trichomes are clear or amber anyway. To me this looks exactly like sugar syrup containing ground plant matter possibly pollen has been paint brushed directly onto the comb. The way it's gathered on the outer edges certainly gives it a painted on appearance and the broken cell wall in the bottom left and widened cell in the top right would also suggest this comb has been subjected to some rough manhandling. On extraction this stuff will probably come out with the honey giving you a crop of honey adulterated with sugar and added pollen or other plant matter. It's the equivalent of adding frothed milk to your coffee then claiming you've trained a cow to produce lattes.

My hypothesis seems to be supported by a picture of a spoonful of his set honey posted on his Instagram and  Facebook. Ignoring the fact it's full of bubbles (use a honey stirrer..) there are tiny dark particles of something in it which I expect will be pollen or bits of finely ground leaves he's added. His claim that the honey is somehow infused with pot propolis simply doesn't bear scrutiny.

So, to summarise: You can't make cannabis from honey and you can't trust everything on the Internet no matter how upbeat the video, or many likes, shares or reposts it has -but don't just take this post from a blog as fact do some research yourself, the info on botany and bees isn't hard to find and at worst you could always buy a book or two.

Whilst I wouldn't recommend it myself if you really want to make cannabis infused honey a quick Google search will tell you how. It's a simple two step process and requires a jar of liquid honey, not a box of bees.