propolis

[tig]

  hi all,


   does anyone gather the propolis from their hives and if so, what do they do with it?  would anyone know how to sell propolis and what is the current market price for the raw product?

[Michael Bush]

>does anyone gather the propolis from their hives

I have one trap.

> and if so, what do they do with it?

I chew it sometimes.  :)  You can freeze it, grind it, and put it in capsules for nutritional additive.

>  would anyone know how to sell propolis

I never tried, but I believe I've seen ads in the bee journals to buy it.

[Mici]

Let mr. bush chew it, i don't recomend you that! takes up to one week to get it off your teeth, not to mention how you look....with that redish-brownish stain on your teeth!

the "traps" are usually just those...green nets made of plastic, well you put it under the cover and bees just like bees, want to fill every little hole (the net should be small enough so the bees can't pass). there you get large ammount of propolis, in the fall-at the end of the season you take the net out put it into the freezer for let's say 5 min take it out and crumble the propolis off, you might do this a few times, it doesn't go off completely the first time.

as for seeling/using propolis. around here we dissolve it in either home made aqua vitae (schnapps) or 70% food grade alcohol some do it with 95% alcohol. the bast way is...your way :-D.....so after a few months the alcohol gets saturated with propolis, you then pour it into a different container and...you can add more propolis and alcohol to make the best of it (at least i do it this way-although only once :lol:)
then you can seel the propolic tincture, it goes for â,¬2 per 10ml bottle
otherwise...find the local bee-product dealer, i think you can get around â,¬100 per dry kilo of propolis, but i don't know exactly, plus this is Slovenia i'm talkin about.

anyway, i hope the recepture i gave you answered your question
oh, by the way, i use my propolis all the time, just drink a few drops any time i think of it, instead of aftershave water and they say it's the best thing against herpes on the lip. consumption is recommended that you put a drop or two of it into a glass of warm water and drink it.

have a nice sticky day!

[tig]

thanks for the reply michael and mici.  what i had in mind was gathering propolis from my stingless bees.  they make copious amounts considering the colony is very small.  you can harvest about 250 grams from an average colony every 6 weeks or so and since i plan to have several hundreds of colonies, thats quite a lot of propolis.

stingless bees need minimal care and manipulation, need no feeding as long as you dont over saturate the area, have no known diseases, and dont have mites!  the down side is they dont really give much pollen or honey, but they are great pollinators and exceptional propolis gatherers which is why i was asking about propolis buyers.

i've never tried chewing propolis but its an interesting concept!

[Mici]

with that ammount....you could makea ****load of violins and chelos :shock: :-D 8-)
so...almost a kilo per hive per year, huh.
so...home processing is kinda...LOL out of the question, hehe
hummmm, i don't know where they'd need large quantities of propolis. maybe you oughta do a research on propolis wood treatments. i know they make varnish for violins outof/with propolis but...they obviusly don't need much so...no, i have no idea on how to seal that much propolis

[Jerrymac]

Do a search on propolis,

http://www.lifetimehealth.com/products.asp?id=3

[pdmattox]

beehive botanicals in wissconsin is paying 8-12$ a pound.  I bought 10 traps to try and will update the info.

[mpjourdan]

pdmattox, do you know if those prices are for hive scrapings or propolis from traps?  I've always been curious what they pay.  Propolis from traps is worth more because of purity than hive scrapings, maybe thats what the price range represents, scrapings for around $8 depending how clean it is, and trappings for around $12?

tig, I've sold some propolis to Eastern Europeans, and I think most cultures outside of America hold a high regard for it.   I've made and used a propolis tincture, using 96% Polish alcohol (Spirytus Rektyfikowany) and going mainly by the directions in the book  "Value added products of beekeeping"      www.fao.org/docrep/w0076e/w0076e14.htm#5.3
which is a great resource for all the products from the hive.

I also  used these directions as an aid
www.tc.umn.edu/~reute001/htm-files/Propolis%20extract.html

[pdmattox]

You are correct, the price range does reflect the quality.

[Cindi]

On my kitchen counter I keep two small jars of propolis.  It is aromatherapy for me.  One jar has some from the first year of beekeeping, the second jar, the second year of beekeeping.  This is not all the propolis, just my aroma therapy jars.

Very often I open each jar and take an enormous deep sniff.  This aroma brings me back to the wonderful days of the summertime.  It has an amazing result on the body and mind.  It is just like I am in the forest, inhaling the beautiful smell of the coniferous trees, the alders, the cottonwoods, there is nothing on earth like this scent.  (Other than the scent of freshly cut grass).

Each jar smells quite differently.  The propolis that I gathered the second season has a very very strong smell of resin.  The type of resin that I remember my Dad using when he built things out of fibreglass.  this is a very strong and certainly distinctive smell, if the jar is left open for a few minutes, this kind of gassy resin smell diminishes and the scent of propolis then pervades the nasal passage.  It is interesting. 

This is my aromatherapy that can take me from the depths of the wintertime, deep into the memories of summer gone by.   All have a fantastic day.  Cindi

[BEE C]

If I didn't pop a few propolis pills each day I would probably be dead from the wait on the liver/kidney transplant list...I had food poisoning, im sure this year and it was hell.  I new something was up because I felt rotten, and had that metallic taste in mouth.  I took four grams of propolis and had propolis burps for a few days, and upset stomach but kept my liver and kidneys. :-D 
Id like to try the recipe for propolis tincture from value added beeking, my mentor makes the tinctures and they fetch a good price.  I couldn't imagine trying to process the propolis into pills...I still can't get my propolis mat clean...frankly I don't think I ever will.
I like MB's suggestion about eating it...for others.  I have a co worker that got to eat some raw.  She is a bit anal about her oral hygiene and was less than pleased about the bright orange, been smoking cigars since the age of ten hue. :-D

[Cindi]

Steve, Wow, did the food poisoning cause the vital organs to begin to fail?  that is the impression that I get.  I would love to hear more about it.  Best of the best day.  Cindi

[tig]

many old folks told me they used it to seal leaks in the roof.  they showed me some old houses that still had the propolis stuck to the galvanized sheets from over 20 years ago and the roof hasn't leaked!

[BEE C]

cindi,
I am not a fan of doctors.  I have only had food poisoning once before, when I was backpacking in europe.  My friend went and got me some antibiotics because I was semiconscious.  I thought it was a hangover until i was in that state. 
This time, I don't know what it was, but I started feeling flu like symptoms, feverish, sweats, metallic taste.  I wanted to sleep.  After a few hours I felt like I was run over by a truck, pounding head etc.  I took a few grams of propolis, I can't remember how much exactly.  My sides hurt a lot, and I was throwing up for a day or so, but I could feel the effect of the propolis working.  I kept taking a few grams of propolis each day for a week or so.  After that I kept taking it in smaller amounts.  I half joke about keeping my kidneys, but wow was I sick.  I also couldn't stand the smell of propolis because I threw some up at first.  I couldn't look at food except for tea.  It was august and not a good time to be sick because of the heat.   I thats my testimonial, minus a few other symptoms I would rather not get into...

[Cindi]

Eeegads.  I do not know very much about the human body, except, I remember watching something somewhere.  Oh, ya, that sounds good, definitely some medical facts to back up what I am going to say.

That metallic taste in the mouth has something to do with kidney failure.  Hmmm...Don't take any credence in what I say here, it is just something that I recall.  Oh ya, maybe it was from "House".  I have not used propolis internally.  But I do recall a Polish gentleman that took the Beekeeping level II with me told us that his grandmother always gave her grandchildren propolis to drink when they were ill.  This natural product goes back probably to the beginning of time itself.

BUT.  Make a tincture, it is significantly easier on the digestive track.  Remember when you said that you had propolis burps?  That would not be very nice.  Eeeks.  I can imagine it now.

When I was very young I had a nanny goat.  We milked her, drank the milk (to this day I hate goats' milk).  One evening I mixed goat's milk with Kahluha.  I got the goat milk burps.  Man were they awful.  Even the smell of Kahluha or goat's milk makes me just feel absolutely sick to my stomach, over 30 years later.  I know about tastes and smells that can take you back many years ago.

Ever smelled the scent that a billy emits?  Picture that in milk that you are drinking.  I was young, foollish, probably didn't realize how careful one must be when milking the barnyard clan.  Kept the nanny in close proximity to the billy.  Milk has probably the biggest transfer of taste of any liquid that the human can ingest.  Yikes!!!  How did I get on that subject.  Stopping now.  Best of the best of days.  Cindi