[rwurster]

I brutally cut the bottom of my finger a few days ago. This morning the whole finger print was red and painful. At 10:30 I opened my solar wax melter to clean it and got my entire 'finger print' in a big glob of propolis. I thought, why not? spread the propolis to cover my entire bottom of my finger then split 12 hives, re-organized the warehouse for supering and pollination. I got home at 8:00 and realized in the shower my finger not only didn't hurt any more but the wound was closed and the redness was all but gone except for the edge of the wound. Im writing it off as being a coincidence but had to throw the question out there, has this happened to any one else or can one treat fairly minor wounds with propolis?

 

[crazylocha]

Pine tar. Or similar sap, locally acquired by your bees. Works on cracks in hive bodies, why wouldnt it work on a crack in your "hive body".

 

[Colobee]

Almost exactly...

In my experience, it works. I've been a "fan" for some time. 'Early research revealed it's use in the "farmasuitacle" industry.

Perhaps the best example is a fairly old one - a guy with the new nick name "Mower Bob" had severely cut a finger under a mower that hadn't stopped spinning. After several days it had become badly infected. He wasn't going to see a doctor - too expensive, blah blah,...if it doesn't heal I guess I'll get it cut off.."

Having read a bit about it, I went outside and scraped some fresh propolis out of some supers I happened to have in the truck. Contrary to my suggestion, he immediately mashed the whole glob all over the end of his swollen red finger, like a soft cast, and went back to throwing horse shoes. I warned him to cover it up, but he ignored the suggestion.

The next evening he was parading his newly pretty little pink finger around, exclaiming - "Can you believe it? It's a miracle!" and then recounting the head scratching story... and asking "how do you get propolis out of your hair? ":scratch:


I would find any more recent research very interesting, if you'd like to share.

 

[crazylocha]

Old stories from Native Elders. Propolis mixed into a bit of bear fat keeps multitude of bugs off. Propolis with certain plants for healing certain bug bites (great for ticks btw).
Egyptians have glyphs all about uses. Mayan/Incan also.

$cience just starting to catch up, lol.

 

[spreerider]

honeybees are european natives would not have had propolis until settlers arrived

 

[HiveMind]

Replying to follow comments.

 

[hex0rz]

Propolis has natural antibacterial properties. Hence why the red inflammation went away and started healing.

 

[estreya]

Crazylocha, that's so interesting! I will say there are quite a few mosquitoes around my hives at dusk. If only i had a fat bear around!

 

[Needo]

I think I would rather take the mosquitoes an leave out the bears. I don't like the ideal of picking up the trash a second or third time.