On Wednesday, May 4th, 2022 at 7:32 AM, Justin Kay <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> You could always cut a propolis trap

The reason I was not considering that was because (as Dr. Spivak mentioned) it does interfere with bee space.

> Or if the cost of a propolis
> trap doesn't suit your budget, you could always take a sander, dremel,
> router, or angle grinder and rough up the interior walls. I imagine a rough
> enough material (such as steel wool) and a power drill, along with some
> creativity, would give you suitable results.

These days I am looking for less creativity and more cost/time effective methods.  I've got a day job, and I need to retain enough time to manage the bees properly without adding too many bee-related projects of unknown efficacy.  I do appreciate the ideas, I'm not trying to pooh pooh what you said at all.

Spivak et al coated the hived "by coating the interior of each box with 100 mL of a 30% propolis extract in 70% ethanol solvent[.]"  This seems to indicate that the 70:30 uses a previously dissolved propolis preparation.  Later the paper indicates "[a] 30% (w/v) ethanol extract of propolis was made by dissolving 30 g of the powdered propolis in 70 mL of 70% ethanol."  That being a 70:30 solution, I am again not sure if it was 30% propolis extract (it too at 70:30) and 70% ethanol, or if the final "paint" was a 70:30 mixture.  Further they indicate "[t]he final concentration of propolis was 196 mg/mL."  I'm not going to do the math there, w/v conversions being above my ability while on this conference call.

Ref:  Dalenberg H, Maes P, Mott B, Anderson KE, Spivak M. 2020.  Propolis envelope promotes beneficial bacteria in the honey bee (Apis mellifera) mouthpart microbiome.  Insects 11, 453. doi:10.3390/insects1107/0453

Another study referenced in Spikak's presentation indicates they used 300mL of 15% propolis extract per box.  My takeaway is that it doesn't matter a bunch how much you use.

The study also reportedly employed custom milled boxes with 7mm grooves (I do not recall whether that was the spacing, depth, or both) to encourage the bees to coat the sides.  Another had "1/16" striations."  Dr. Spivak also shared in an online video that Brushy Mountain is reportedly testing "rougher lumber" for their boxes.

For now I guess I'll just get some propolis traps and slap them on top of the frames and collect some for next years' boxes.  Maybe someday when we buy boxes we will have the option of "rough insides" based on this and other similar work.

--
Lee Bussy


Sent with ProtonMail secure email.

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html