My experience indicates this. My first queen came from a different source than the 20 packages installed the second year of keeping bees. Second source colonies all showed a much greater amount of propolis than the first colony, although they, too, varied amongst themselves in this respect. The first queen's daughter, granddaughter, etc. each showed increasing propensity for propolis until, now, the great-great grandaughters' colony shows fully as much propolis as any of the second source queens. [log in to unmask] wrote: > > There seems to be a genetic component in the propensity to collect propolis. > I have one hive in an apiary of 5 that is collecting far more than all the > rest put together with no apparent reason. > > Chris Slade