I noticed that most of my bees produce a tannish colored propolis. One hive, though, produces a reddish/very sticky propolis. By sticky I mean that it doesn't make the "crack" that the other type seems to make.
I was just curious about it. Does it indicate the type of bee, or anything else? The hives are all located in the same yard.
Good question. I was scraping propolis off of supers yesterday and noticing the different colors and textures.
The colors and textures are related to the types of plants the propolis is collected from. Age comes into play as well - since it tends to dry out and get more crumbly with age.
I saw some green propolis in one of my hives a while ago. I wish I knew what plant they were getting that stuff from...
My hive of Russian / Caucasian makes a very dark more sticky propolis like you are referring to. My Italians have the lighter kind that cracks. In addition to the type of plants they get it from, I suspect it depends on the type of bee too. ??