Propolis collection

[crazydude]

Hey, anyone come up with an idea to collect propolis? (I'm looking for something a bit more than the shadecloth mesh ontop of the frames)

[Scot Mc Pherson]

Most people I know that collect propolis simply scrape it off of hive parts and out of nooks and crannies after key points in the season.

1) After winter/spring buildup.
2) After Summer Dearth

Then they leave the propolis alone for winter.

Using tools such as cloth and screening to gather propolis only redirect its application, they aren't increasing the gathering of propolis by the bees. The bees gather it as its available, not by stimulus to get more. Its just part of the foraging process, just as gather pollen is also performed at the same time as nectar forage.

Most propolis is gathered at the beginning of a flow as the bees remove propolis from buds to be opening soon. Not all flowers produce propolis, but many do. Of course bees will gather propolis from trees and also pavement at times, but that's as a secondary measure. The bees most often gather it from the seams of an unopened bud (either flower bud or branch bud) and the propolis contains the herbal essense of the plant and can be considered a naturally strong herbal essense which is why it works well as an antibiotic/antioxidant and others.

[Joel]

If you're selling propolis direct to customers, as we do, it is best to use propolis traps. We charge 20/lb which means we can pay for the traps usually the 1st. year. if you are medicating your hives with cumophos or apistan you should not be harvesting "scraped" proplis from them. Scraped propolis is often abundant with come races of bees and I believe beehive botanicals pays pretty well for it. Save some for yourself to use at the 1st. sign of a cold of flu.