Hi everyone
At last looks like the weather is getting better downhere. The weather
forescat says sunny for more than 3 days in a row. Great!!!
I want to add my two cent to this propolis conversation.
1.- The whole trick to make the bees to gather propolis is to make surface
rough (not smooth). This had been said when refering to the interior wood
surface of the hive bodies. Do not bother with the brazilian way of
producing propolis, not worth the effort. Been there done that.
2.- I think I have tell you before that we do not use inner covers downhere,
all our hives have instead a propolis mesh. We use an italian made, grey
plastic mesh, with rhomboids holes. This particular mesh, that we call Yoly
(couldn't find a link in the chilean provider www.protekta.cl) have the
particularity of having the threads overlaped, therefore for the bees, the
surface is very rough. Each thread is like a millimeter thick. The holes are
around 3 mm wide. We have tried many meshes and this one is the best. be
carefull with the dark ones because most of them use "back smoke" as pigment
an that will contaminate the propolis. Also most of the fly mesh have too
small holes and then is very difficult to take the propolis out.
3.- The mesh is all year round on top of the frames (we only take them out
when applying varroa treatments). Bees propolize the space between the
frames. When the mesh is full on those lines, we move is a bit to the side.
Gathering propolis is like making comb honey; as crowded the hive the
better, and that is the reason why bees gather more propolis when the mesh
is on top of the brood box than when is on top of the super.
4.- A full mesh will give around 100 gr of propolis. Usually we change the
meshes before they are full, because we play with "monofloral" propolis.
Actually there are big differences between the , propolis our bees gather
when they are in different environments. The northern one is darker (greener
actually), taste and smell horrible, but it is much better for
cicatrization. The southern one is yellowish- redish, smells and taste
beautifull and it is better for influenza treatments. More on the uses is my
wife secret!!!
5.- Depending on the season, bees gather with the propolis more or less wax.
Usually in autumn most of it is propolis. In summer bees put more wax with
the propolis. They do not gather propolis during winter, and not much during
spring.
6.- If you look at the meshes, on the bee side, the surface is soft, plain,
smooth; on the other side you see like small bubbles of propolis sticking
out by the mesh holes. Allways put the mesh the same way (soft side towards
the bees) other wise it latter is very difficult to take the propolis out of
the mesh.
7.- To get the propolis out of the mesh your have to freeze the mesh with
propolis, then fold it (squach it really) and most of the propolis will fall
out the mesh. If too much propolis still in the mesh, freeze again and
squach harder.
8.- Keep the propolis in small bags (we use 1 kg per bag), in the dark, and
do not pile too many bags on top of the other. If the propolis gets hotter
than 15°C and worst if it have some weight on top, it will make one hard
solid very difficult to brake and process latter.
9.- We have two mesh per hive, this give us time to process the one that is
full, while we have the other one with the bees.
10.- We have tried the "official" propolis traps (those hard white plastic
ones). They produce less propolis and do not work as inner covers that is
part of our purpose, since when we move the hives, that mesh gives us the
need ventilation. Our solution is also cheaper (us$1.5 per mesh).
We produce around 30 kg of propolis per year. All is processed by my wife
and sold as medicine, shampoo, soap, creams, etc, etc. The profit margin is
amazing!!!
How to process it is a family secret I am afraid.
PeterD and Randy had the pleasure of listen to my wife presentation at OZ
past June. Stan have seen the whole set up and maybe can explain better.
After reading Marla's paper I will comment on the benefit of propolis within
the hive, but in principle I have the opinion that propolis is not ingested
by the bees, rather it stays stick to the surfaces (even in the rim of the
cells), so it is not that usefull for inmunization. If you feed the bees
with it the results are wonderfull, but in my opinion not economical.
--
Juanse Barros J.
APIZUR S.A.
Carrera 695
Gorbea - CHILE
+56-45-271693
08-3613310
http://apiaraucania.blogspot.com/
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