have collected lots myself woking bees. on the serious side I believe roger morse did some early work with a simular electric grid. this would have been done in the 70's.
A lot of apitherapist have been selling and using topical bee venom creams and ointments. If you can come up with your own blend to market, or maybe find some apitherapists who will buy it from you.
We've borrowed an electronic gadget that collects venom, but I haven't sold any yet, still playing with it. We get about .2 - .3 grams of venom per use. We've only had access to it recently- so colonies aren't what i'd call full strength. I am curious to see what it looks like when a full tower of bees goes after it.... It makes the bees tissy for a bit after, but I figure if I had to protect my house for 45minutes, then the threat left, and then the girl scouts knocked on the door to sell cookies, I might not be in a good mood either.
Charles Mraz here in Vermont invented the electric venom collector. His son and grandson still collect venom. A few years ago, they collected venom in four of my yards. Chaz told me that only two of the yards yielded much. 48 grams total from the two. I think they told me the venom market is soft right now.
I do. I have a couple of collector units. Currently there is a lack of serum for allergist to use on people who have a sensitivity to bee venom. As well it is profitable in lip balms as it gives a puffy lip look. You have to be very careful as some people have significant reactions as you can imagine. You need an attorney, you need to talk to the USFDA and state ag departments as they control cosmetics. You get about half a gram to a gram per cycle. 38 grams is an ounce. It takes a few runs to get much of anything and any rain destroys the run.
Units are not cheap. About as much as entire double deep beehive with the medium and a excluder as well as the bees. If that helps. I have invested significant cash in the attorney research and documentation. I have applied for patents and trademarks. When I showed up on the boards last year, I got a lot of skeptical looks comments, etc...I invested considerably and want the retail market particularly since most old beekeepers seemed to scoff at my idea. We are applying for FDA approval with our product (That's not cheap). You cant just use the powdered venom straight. You have to "refine" it. Our process is being patented. If you want an idea of how steep the curve is, I have daughter who is preparing for the bar in our state, and a son who is pursuing a biology degree at Clemson with a minor in apiary science. We spent a lot of time in a chemistry lab and have talked to a wide group of chemist, physicians, and veno-toxin experts. You can harvest the stuff as much as you like, you have to figure out the way to render the toxins and not kills some one.
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