St Barnaby's thistle (Clemson, p. 213) is valued both for its pollen and its honey. The pollen is of reasonable quality with a range of crude protein of 18% to 26%, but is limited by its low level of iso-leucine (Table 9). However the large volume of pollen and the heavy nectar flow make it a valuable autumn bee food.

For best results from St Barnaby s thistle, there needs to be good ground moisture, and the bees allowed to access this floral source for six to eight weeks. Some beekeepers leave their bees on St Barnaby s thistle all autumn.

It is reported that queen bees bred on St Barnaby's thistle are usually of high quality.

Amino-acid	Minimum % of Amino-Acid from De Groot (1953)	Swan Vale Glen Innes March 86	King's Plain Inverell March 87	Glen Innes March 92
Threonine	3.0	3.44	4.44	3.8
Valine	4.0	3.55*	4.05	4.4
Methionine	1.5	1.47*	2.06	1.9
Leucine	4.5	5.18	6.67	6.3
Iso-leucine	4.0	2.87*	3.34*	3.9*
Phenylalanine	2.5	3.14	4.52	3.5
Lysine	3.0	5.91	5.51	4.3
Histidine	1.5	3.03	4.19	2.5
Arginine	3.0	4.87	5.04	4.7
Tryptophan	1.0	-	-	-
Crude protein	-	22.4%	18.68%	26.4%
Fat		8%