Are Honey Bees safe fish feed or can the stinger cause harm to an Aquaponic system?

[Glenn]

A friend recently got into the beekeeping business and offered what seems like an unlimited supply of dead bees. Each colony has a natural mortality of 10s of thousands per month.

I'm sure that the fish in my system has snacked on the occasional arrant bee with no known adverse effects But does anyone know if the stinger and venom should be removed before offering a large number either whole or mashed/processed to the fish in our systems? I should add that I raise trout and catfish and am interested in adding crayfish.

Thanks in advance for advice, info, and thoughts.

[Derek]

Hi.
I also farm with Bees and have been feeding my tilapia dead bees and larvae for a long time now and no bad affect is notisble yet. That said we should not hang on to the thought that now we have food for free so eet as much as you can. The fish needs a balanced diet.The calories in Bees and bee Larvae per 100g is 250 calories. Bee
Larvae is calculated to be 250Cal per 100 grams making 80Cal
equivalent to 32g with 30.2g of mostly carbohydrates、16.2g
of protein、7.2g of fat in 100g while being rich in vitamins
and minerals such as Vitamin B2 and Copper. Aquaponic fish needs a minimum of 30 persent proteïen in there feed. So yes you can feed it but not only that. I chose to feed my fish in a sustainable way and I am am confident that when I eat them they will be as natural as possible. This go for the backyard aquaponic inthusiast and I'm not sure but I think that's the way forward regarding farmed fish in general. So many of our pallet fish food on the market contain grains like corn and soy and they are riddled with GMO. Hope it helps.