More Fun with Propolis

   I thought I would do yet another post on the subject of propolis and its many uses.  The word propolis comes from two Greek words, "pro", meaning before or in front of, and "polis", meaning city. This name came about due to the bees use of propolis to reduce or restrict the entrance of their colony during the winter. The normal location of a feral colony in most parts of the world is in a hollow tree. If the opening is too large for that particular climate, the bees simply add propolis to the opening until the size of the hole suits them. Some races of honeybees use propolis more enthusiastically than others. Caucasions are famous for their extensive gathering of propolis.  I read once in one of the bee journals that Italian honeybees gather only 35% of the amount of propolis that Caucasion honeybees collect. Most beekeepers would prefer their bees gathered less propolis as the bees use it to glue everything together such that hive exams are more difficult. I have Italian honeybees and I thought they gathered a great deal of propolis. I can't imagine dealing with a three fold increase of propolis in my hives.

    This past week I attended a wonderful presentation by Sue Cobey at our bee club meeting.  She is the world renown expert in the artificial insemination of honeybees. She is currently involved in WSU's efforts to collect semen from drone honeybees in various parts of the world to try to improve the genetic diversity of honeybees in the United States.  It is much easier to get a permit to import semen than it is to import live bees and cryogenically frozen semen doesn't pose the same level of risk of importing new parasites and diseases.  Some of the places the WSU team has visited thus far include Slovenia, Germany, Northern Italy, Turkey, and Georgia (not the Georgia where the Atlanta Braves reside).  She showed some photos and videos of Caucasion honeybees using propolis to reduce the size of the hive entrance. It was absolutely amazing how much propolis these bees gathered.

    Until the past year, my use of propolis mainly consisted of using it as a substitute for modeling clay to make small sculptures. I have a little menagerie of propolis animals at the bee store which include an alligator, a penguin, a snail, and a pig.  At about seventy degrees propolis is fairly hard. At colder temperatures it becomes quite brittle.  At warmer temperatures propolis becomes soft and more malleable until at some point it turns into a little tar baby and sticks to everything. I sculpted the little pig in the photo below while I was working at the Open Honey and Beeswax display at the Evergreen State Fair.  I was inspired by the fact that the pig barn was a relatively short distance away. I can tell that this photo was taken shortly after I made the pig. When kneaded for a few minutes, our local propolis starts out yellow. Exposure to the air turns the propolis to a dark reddish color within a couple of weeks.

Propolis pig, newly formed in August, 2013

The same pig, over one year later

      Propolis is used in cosmetics, hand cream, lip balsam, and for medicinal purposes. I have Russian and Ukrainian customers who are avid proponents of the medical uses of propolis. One Russian customer told me that his sixteen year old son had a serious problem with warts on his face and head, a terrible affliction for a teenager. He took his son to a dermatologist who used medication, freezing, and burning in successive efforts to get rid of the warts. After each treatment, the warts returned. Finally he resorted to East European folk medicine and began to give his son a daily dose of propolis dissolved in rum.  Within two weeks all of the warts were gone and they never came back. the Russians and Ukrainians use propolis tinctures both internally and topically. Propolis is soluble in alcohol, but is not soluble in water. Vodka is the usual East European choice for making a tincture. I can only assume that rum was used as the "kiddie version".

    I recently made some propolis tincture at the request of my daughter-in-law.  I found some useful instructions on the internet.  It was in a blog post by someone associated with the honeybee program at the University of Minnesota.  There were instructions for making either 10, 20, or 30% propolis solutions, with the weight of propolis given in both ounces and grams and the liquid given by both weight and volume.  I used 150 proof vodka as the solvent and it took about a week to get most of the propolis to dissolve. I filtered the tincture through a paper towel to remove any wax and debris.

    I had a customer request to purchase some propolis this past week. She wanted it to make a medicinal tincture.  I was not very anxious to part with any of my limited supply, especially since I have begun using it to make propolis varnish.  I told her I could sell her one ounce for ten dollars. Sadly, she was willing to pay that much.