propolis

[piggy]

This month Beecraft had an article about the heath properties of propolis. If it is such a useful substance, should we not be keeping it in brood boxes and not cleaning it out?

 

[pargyle]

This month Beecraft had an article about the heath properties of propolis. If it is such a useful substance, should we not be keeping it in brood boxes and not cleaning it out?

Clean it off and use it or sell it. I use it dissolved in methylated spirits as a most excellent varnish for the inside of new hives. Saves the bees a lot of trouble sealing the wood themselves and it's very bee friendly. Takes minutes to dry and the meths evaporates completely away ... also smells instantly like a hive !!

 

[Cazza]

This month Beecraft had an article about the heath properties of propolis. If it is such a useful substance, should we not be keeping it in brood boxes and not cleaning it out?

Do you mean?
1. Scraping it off prior to flaming the BB (which I do.)
2. Cleaning up as you go during the season (which I don't.)
Cazza

 

[Roola]

Clean it off and use it or sell it. I use it dissolved in methylated spirits as a most excellent varnish for the inside of new hives. Saves the bees a lot of trouble sealing the wood themselves and it's very bee friendly. Takes minutes to dry and the meths evaporates completely away ... also smells instantly like a hive !!

what a good idea. what proporttions do you mix?

 

[piggy]

Do you mean?
1. Scraping it off prior to flaming the BB (which I do.)
2. Cleaning up as you go during the season (which I don't.)
Cazza

By scraping and flaming are we removing the bees natural disinfectant

just a thought!

 

[alldigging]

what a good idea. what proporttions do you mix?

I soaked some bee porters in meths to dissolve the propolis. Not much, just a dash in a bit jar which I swirled round until they were all clean and the meths was the colour of manky tea.

 

[itma]

... I use it dissolved in methylated spirits as a most excellent varnish for the inside of new hives. Saves the bees a lot of trouble sealing the wood themselves and it's very bee friendly. Takes minutes to dry and the meths evaporates completely away ... also smells instantly like a hive !!

There IS an interesting idea!

 

[For want of a better word]

Have you seen the price of it ?????
In sealed polly bags... £....... ( and it looked a bit like dried brown snot!)

May even consider collecting the stuff... goes for more than the grotty Mankuna Honey !

Surprising what folk will buy!



300945327594
eBay item number:

 

[Cie]

By scraping and flaming are we removing the bees natural disinfectant

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

There's an American product for treating leather with a super-high reputation called Obenauf's LP that is made of beeswax and propolis. I tried it in a bait hive in the absence of dirty comb... Certainly applying proplis to the inside or out of a hive seems a fantastic idea.

 

[itma]

By scraping and flaming are we removing the bees natural disinfectant

just a thought!

Er, yes, but the 'disinfectant' isn't enough to prevent problems from AFB and Nosema spores, loads of viruses or wax moth eggs, just to start your list.
It isn't a magic shield, and we remove propolis specifically so that we can effectively deal with those dangerous problems.


Because of the risk from diseases carried by spores, I would be VERY wary about putting propolis from anyone else's hive (especially from abroad) anywhere near my hives ...

 

[Jeff Buzz]

It is suppose to be very good for you and it dissolves in vodka I am told.

 

[piggy]

Thank you for your reply ITMA. I don't think I will stop burning boxes but I think we have to be open to new ideas and change as our knowledge increases.

 

[Little John]

... we remove propolis specifically so that we can effectively deal with those dangerous problems.

Do you never wonder how bees (and other creatures) have survived for so long on this planet without the assistance of human beings and their obsession with killing bugs and bacteria ... ? And so the bugs get cleverer, and the bacteria mutate in order to overcome the latest anti-biotic. Perhaps at some point we'll re-think the underlying principles upon which this clever, but not very wise strategy is based ?

But by all means clean-off the propolis which offends you so - the bees will simply replace it. And so the dance continues ...

LJ

 

[hedgerow pete]

at last every year someone twigs on to an idea i have making sooooooooooooooo much money from.

I sell a tea spoon of propolis in a vial holding 35ml of surgicial spirit to the polish health shops, each vial is worth to me £7 each the shops sell it for a £10 minium

as for all these people how stand there burning £50 quids worth of cash out of a hive box because they only sell orible oney and dont realise what there doing, wax is worth £16 a kilo, propolis is worth £5 a tea spoon and honey is worth the least and is the most work.

 

[itma]

Do you never wonder how bees (and other creatures) have survived for so long on this planet without the assistance of human beings and their obsession with killing bugs and bacteria ... ? And so the bugs get cleverer, and the bacteria mutate in order to overcome the latest anti-biotic. Perhaps at some point we'll re-think the underlying principles upon which this clever, but not very wise strategy is based ?

Ummm.
I don't think anyone was suggesting using antibiotics for hive cleaning.
Yes antibiotics ARE over-used. But not on bees in the UK.

European honeybees in general managed to survive before humankind built the Trans-Siberian railway and introduced the euro-bee to the asian mite.
However, isn't animal husbandry about helping the stocks to do better than they would, unaided, in the wild?

 

[Madge]

Clean it off and use it or sell it. I use it dissolved in methylated spirits as a most excellent varnish ...

How does one clean propolis, Pargyle? Dissolved in methylated spirits is a way of using it, but it isn't the same as cleaning it.

 

[PBee]

Er, yes, but the 'disinfectant' isn't enough to prevent problems from AFB and Nosema spores, loads of viruses or wax moth eggs, just to start your list.
It isn't a magic shield, and we remove propolis specifically so that we can effectively deal with those dangerous problems.
...

Read carefully before use ....

PEE was not toxic for bees at least at 50%. Field assays showed that 21 and 42 days after the application of the treatments, the number of P. larvae spores/g of honey was significantly lower in colonies treated with PEE compared to the colonies that were not treated with PEE. To our knowledge, this is the first report about the use of propolis for the treatment of beehives affected with P. larvae spores.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18508208

 

[pargyle]

what a good idea. what proporttions do you mix?

I don't ... whatever propolis (including scrapings bits of wax and any other rubbish collected) goes into a jar. Fill it up with meths and shake well a couple of times a day for a few day ... just to keep the solids stirred up. The stuff that will dissolve in the meths will dissolve and it goes a lovely deep brown colour. Just dip your brush into the clear solution at the top of the jar and brush it on. You will usually need a couple of coats or so .. dries almost immediately so by the time you get to the end it's possible to put another coat on.

When finished top the jar up with meths and any more propolis and off you go again ... keeps indefinitely with the lid on the jar. If you don't have enough prop you can add some shellac to top it up.

Stradivarius used propolis based varnish on his violins (although the recipe went to the grave with him) ... if it was good enough for violins that are now 400 years old and worth £12 milliion it's probably good enough for my scrap timber hives !!

 

[pargyle]

How does one clean propolis, Pargyle? Dissolved in methylated spirits is a way of using it, but it isn't the same as cleaning it.

Sorry ... I just scrape it off .. my word 'clean' probably a misnomer. I use frame and hive scrapings for my 'propolis varnish; ... it usually has other stuff in it as well , wax, bits of rough timber etc. I chuck it all in the meths and what dissolves, dissolves and the rest either sinks or floats !