propolis??? Does the color indicate anything of interest/value?

[joker1656]

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. 

[annette]

Good question. I was scraping propolis off of supers yesterday and noticing the different colors and textures.

[Eshu]

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...

[charlotte]

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.  ??