Richard,
Thanks a ton for the follow up information. By the way, your farm looks like bucolic nirvana. I lived in the Cincinnati area for two years and it is very pretty once you get outta town! I'm brown and yellow all over with jealousy. Well, not in the middle of Winter but you get the idea lol. ;-)
Your observations are extremely valuable as there is scant information online about propolis harvesting and certainly less about how it impacts the bee's business.
I've been researching it a bit and found on many Japanese website that Brazilian propolis goes for primo bucks in capsule form over there. Like 80 bucks for a middlin size bottle. Of course they have about 1/100th of the lawyer population over there so their lawsuit scene from someone having a reaction to the stuff is no doubt very different. Interestingly, Brazil has long had a large Japanese expatriat community. They are openly praising the Africanized honey bees for making durn good propolis. I looked that up and obviously there are some crazy plants in the Amazon region which do or should produce some potent anti-viral\bacterial resins. This claimed increased potency is why the stuff can command such premium prices. Of course then when I read further, you find that like honey, no hive produces exactly the same stuff and it's seasonal based on what is blooming or in the area for the bees to harvest.
I have a new wrinkle in that I'm starting to really really like the idea of harvesting propolis and pollen to increase my diversification of products. This is hardly anything new but for me it stems from the fact that I'm fighting hard the urge to produce honey by the lb vs by by the healthy cupful. That is I'm trying hard to use at little chemicals as possible.
Speaking of chemicals, amazon or no, the quality control of the hives in xyz place producing "special" medicinal propolis can have as much or not more chemicals to keep the hives going. Additionally, if local honey is sold as a natural allergy resistence "medicine' then shouldn't propolis have some similar regional superiority. I think in this case the taste of honey is influenced by the different kinds of flowers, but the different plants for propolis have been medically determined to have vastly different antibiotic properties. Nonetheless, some local is best marketing is reasonable if a stretch.
I've been extremely concerned about taking harvested propolis and turning it into any product that would be used on or in the human body. Just sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. I guess you could say the same thing about honey though. Still it's like harvesting beeswax from your hive and ONLY selling it as cakes or bulk, never receiving the fun and profit from turning it into candles etc. Any ideas on the legal ramifications of selling a medicinal tincture or salve?
The one product I feel fully confident in producing and selling myself is the propolis wood varnish. I've never made any but seems straightforward. The problem is here are a LOT more people who would like to buy nature's natural antibiotic in lozenge form, drops or in salve than would buy wood varnish. Now maybe I'm not hanging out with the right crowd and the wood varnish would sell like hot cakes.
Lastly, my desire to trap for some pollen seems at odds with my desire to make the bees hang a shingle full of propolis for me. I suppose I could try both concurrently and see if they still do their honey and comb producing thing. I read that propolis gathering was highest in the late summer autumn timeframe. I would imagine that is too large a generalization as if they harvest the intial propolis material from plants then it must be based on the local weather and blooming cycles.
I did find two different flexible (I think) propolis traps. I'll include the links here, the second one is cheaper and looks just as good. Any feedback on these would be appreciated as well!
Thanks,
Musashi
http://www.blossomland.com/hd370.html
http://www.betterbee.com/products.asp?dept=1716