Bee pollen is made by worker bees as they collect pollen from flowers. The worker bees travel from flower to flower, gathering pollen with their front legs and then passing it to their hind legs, where it is collected in pollen baskets. As the bees collect the pollen, they add nectar, enzymes, and bee secretions to it, creating small pellets of pollen called "bee bread." The bees then store the bee bread in the honeycomb and use it as a food source for the colony.

Beekeepers can collect bee pollen by installing special traps at the entrance of the hive that brush the pollen pellets off the bees' legs as they enter the hive. The collected bee pollen is then dried and processed into a powder or granules, which can be consumed as a dietary supplement.