[Boone]

I have propolis traps on 2 hives that are side by side, one trap is full of orange propolis, and the other is filled with green. There is also a lot of wax on the underside of the green trap. I have a queen excluder on both of them, underneath honey supers. Why is there such a big color change? There is no green stuff in the orange trap, and no orange propolis in the green trap. Does a queen excluder knock pollen and propolis off the the bee's pollen basket when they go through? I don't think it does because they are putting it on above the excluders, although I have a reversed bottom board the trap so they can fill it from the top. Also, is there any way to keep them from putting a lot of wax on the trap? They did it once before, and I got most of the wax off, but I think they are adding it to the places that had wax before, because all the wax is on the underside of the trap, and all the propolis is on the top side. Any thought? Thanks

 

[Boone]

Anybody know why the propolis is such a different color?

 

[zhiv9]

Different colonies find different sources. This applies to nectar, pollen and propolis. I have 3 pollen traps in the same yard. The mix of pollen types in the traps can and often is drastically different.

 

[Michael Bush]

>Anybody know why the propolis is such a different color?

According to Huber and according to Marla Spivak, most propolis comes from poplar buds. There are many kinds of poplars and they often have different colored gum in their buds. It generally varies from green to bright red and several in between.

Propolis forages, like water foragers and nectar foragers, are recruited. Sometimes one hive gets recruited to one source while another gets recruited to a different source. This becomes obvious (unfortunately) with pesticide kills. It often affects some hives and not others depending on what they were foraging.

 

[Boone]

Ok. Just thought it was kind of strange. Thanks guys. That explanation made a lot of sense Michael, thank you.