Our friend Anders Engstrom from Bug Burger interviewed some Finnish beekeepers who are finding a place in the edible insects market for drone bee larvae …
Anders: How much drone bee larvae do you harvest each year?
Vertti: This year was the first one that we tried to harvest drones. We did not put much effort on it because selling them was still a bit ”iffy” in summer before the law changes. Still we managed to get around 80kg of drones after they have been cleaned from wax. If we would really invest in drone harvesting i think we would get 1000-1500kg of it…I think drones can be same kind of side product to beekeeping as beeswax, propolis and pollen are or even bigger. Once you already have beehives it takes little to no effort to get them.
