We all know that bees collect nectar and
pollen, but did you also know that bees collect plant resin to use as a
disinfectant, glue and varnish inside the hive?
This substance, called ‘Propolis’, is collected by the bees from sticky
buds and tree wounds. The bees bring it
back to the hive in the same way that they
carry pollen, in the ‘pollen baskets’ on their back legs. The only difference is that it is so sticky
that they cannot unload themselves and instead, another bee has to nibble the
propolis off.
Bees don’t really store propolis, but use
it immediately for a number of uses.
The most annoying use for the beekeeper is that they will block any
cracks with propolis. This explains why
we need a metal lever (the ‘hive tool’) to separate the parts of the hive. The bees have glued it all together with
propolis, and we have to break the joint by levering. The propolis ‘bee glue’ can be so strong that
wooden parts of the hive can come apart or break before the glue gives way!
The bees also use propolis as a
disinfectant ‘varnish’ over all the internal surfaces of the hive. This
protects the colony from any infective organisms that may be in the surface of
the wood.
To reduce the risk of infection, bees will
also use propolis to ‘embalm’ anything
that dies in the hive and is too big to drag out. I found the object in the photo in the bottom
of the brood chamber of one of my hives this spring. I imagine it must have been there all
winter. The object is a propolised
hornet. The bees must have killed it in
the hive. They probably formed a ball of bees around it and raised their
temperature until the hornet died from the heat.
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| Propolised Hornet found in a beehive |
The dead hornet was too big for the bees to
drag out, so they have nibbled off all the small and thin bits like the wings
and the feet. The rest of the carcase
has been covered with a layer of antiseptic propolis so that it will not rot in
the hive.
Although I don’t collect it, propolis has
been used since Roman times (Pliny the Elder wrote about it) as a medicine and
antiseptic. It is still sold, dissolved
in alcohol, as ‘Tincture of Propolis’ and is recommended for sore throats.
Propolis was also reputed to be one of the
ingredients that made the varnish that Stradivarius used on the violins that he
made.
