Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: beehappy1950 on December 27, 2012, 01:27:30 pm
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Just wondering how profitable it can be selling propolis and whether it is even worth the effort. Harold
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Harold - just a couple of questions...
Are you thinking to sell the propolis direct to the public or to a manufacturer (for inclusion in medical products, timber varnishes, etc)?
If you can identify and sell to a specific manufacturer or two, you wouldn't have to spend as much effort on the marketing side of selling (as compared to selling direct to the public).
If you were to sell to the general public, would you prefer to sell propolis 'raw' or would you 'value add'? For example, blend it with something else and call it car wax.
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So far I have just been selling honey. I know nothing about propolis except it will make my eyes swell almost shut in spring. I think it would take a bushel basket of the stuff to amount to much if you were selling by the pound. Just thinking.
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It doesn't take a lot to make some money off it. Raw clean propolis goes for about $ 60 to $70 a pound. Cleaning propolis can turn out to be a bunch of work. It's hard to do with your eyes swelled shut too.
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How do you clean it?
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My mentor,long gone, sold some , and said the best way that he found to clean it was to get it very cold and crush it . then put it in cold water. He said the wax and wood would float to the top and propolis will sink to the bottom.
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I was at a talk a few years ago given by a manufacturer of propolis products for humans. Their testing (in the UK) showed all propolis samples to contain lead. The govt demanded either they remove the lead before selling, or the govt would mandate it be done. As far as I know, the name brand stuff is all dissolved in alcohol and filtered many, many times before being sold for human use.
deknow
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Did they say what the source of lead was?
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Not that I care about selling propolis, but how in the world do you harvest it? Do you take a putty knife and simply pull it from where the bees have placed it?
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Buy some propolis traps from one of the bee suppliers.
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LAZY SHOOTER. Go to google and punch in harvesting propolis. Dont be lazy. ;)
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BeeHappy1950:
LAZY SHOOTER. Go to google and punch in harvesting propolis. Dont be lazy. Wink
Thanks for reminding me of google. I am recovering from knee replacement and only have about 16 hours a day of free time. I am way to lazy to harvest and clean propolis. All I ever wanted from bees was honey, and a "good feeling for my naturalist being." I'm a hobbyist and don't care about making a profit, but I find all things about bees to be interesting, including all aspects of propolis.
I want my bees to strengthen my native weeds and brush via pollination, and I think that my bees will produce some swarms into the environment. I'm not encouraging swarming, but one of my hives swarmed last year. I was real OK with letting a swarm into our ranch country. I am hoping to produce a couple of hundred pints of honey this year. I will give it to friends and some charitable organizations. At 73 years of age, I do not anticipate my bees ever becoming a profitable venture.
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I guess we could all just use Google search. Then there would be no reason for all of us to hang out in here and talk about our addiction. :bee:
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I guess we could all just use Google search. Then there would be no reason for all of us to hang out in here and talk about our addiction. :bee:
:-D But then when we search with google it cant direct us to the massive knowledge contained at beemaster.com :-D
mvh edward :-P
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get a plastic queen excluder and place on top of hive where inner cover would be. Then take a bottom board, turn it upside down on top of queen excluder. Then put the telescoping cover on top. The bees will use it as a top entrance, and will propolise all the holes in the excluder. Then you take it off when its closed up, put the excluder in the freezer. after its frozen, put the excluder in a trash bag and tie it up. slam the excluder on the floor or a table, the propolis will bust apart from the excluder. put it back on the hive. when you winterize pull the excluder and put your inner cover back on.
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If bees use their energy to produce additional propolis, one would think it would cut back on their honey production.
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I bought a dozen propolis traps a few years back to give them a try and see what I could make. Easy to make and collect. Just never make tons of the stuff. Never really had buyers either. Traps are in the basement covered in propolis from that first year. Honey sells for me.
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I was at a talk a few years ago given by a manufacturer of propolis products for humans. Their testing (in the UK) showed all propolis samples to contain lead. The govt demanded either they remove the lead before selling, or the govt would mandate it be done. As far as I know, the name brand stuff is all dissolved in alcohol and filtered many, many times before being sold for human use.
deknow
Ok. So it was a manufacturer of propolis products that told everyone else (in a round about way) that ALL propolis (that THEY had tested....probably one sample....their own) contained lead. I bet a few beekeepers decided based on those tidbits to forget about propolis. Makes you wonder about why they would mention lead.
They probably scraped the edges of painted boxes. Other than that, how could a pure product produced by bees contain lead. This is not the way to collect propolis. And I highly doubt the bees had lead in the propolis as they brought it into the hive.
Of course, they are not the only producer doing this. Anybody asking how to, or suggesting using water to clean the propolis of wood and wax, probably should not be producing it. If you need to freeze, crush, and use water to separate the junk, are they really producing propolis in a proper way? I would so no.
I sell propolis to two main buyers. They buy most of my propolis and I call when I have a few pounds. If I have some extra, I sell it by the quarter pound, for 48 dollars per pound. I sell all I can produce.
From the comments sent to me from buyers, they must buy some real crap from others. Because they say it is some of the best they have bought. And I don't do much to clean it beyond some bee legs and such. But I do not scrape the box edges to produce it.
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Mike,
Thanks for that reply. What technique do you use to collect the propolis?
Jim
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Mike,
Thanks for that reply. What technique do you use to collect the propolis?
Jim
In just the normal work that we do, we come across chunks from time to time. The biggest part is having a jar or can to throw it in, instead of throwing it away. We try to do most of our cleaning at two places where we can work at a table which really helps. We sometimes clean up frame ends and nucs so they also look a bit better before they go out the door. It just comes down to if we see enough propolis built up to make it worth our efforts to knock it off, it's worth putting it in a jar. We probably still throw most propolis away as you get wax, dirt, and crap from scraping boxes. We make it a point to never collect propolis from scraping the box edges as it just is impossible to not have paint chips in the propolis. We do scrape box edges, but all that stuff no matter how much propolis, does not go in the propolis jar.
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What are some of the uses of propolis for humans that would make humans pay $48 a pound?
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As I understand it there are healing properties in the stuff. The bees use it to sort of sterilize the inside of the hive. They say the more propolis the bees put in the hive the more resistant they are to disease. Harold
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What are some of the uses of propolis for humans that would make humans pay $48 a pound?
You can start with a shortage of quality propolis on the market. There are many "refined" capsules, powders, and other products "containing" propolis. Most "propolis" is some fraction of being pure and sold as some health product. And I suppose some just don't want to buy such items as pollen, royal jelly, and propolis from overseas producers, for concerns of what usually is in it. Most propolis is from overseas suppliers. Propolis really is not regulated as it is not a food product. But it is used in the health care industry.
Raw, unrefined, and pure propolis, not "killed" by cleaning with alcohol is not easy to find. Especially at a quality that some would want to put in cosmetics, tinctures, lotions, soaps, and other products. I have customers ask if it has been cleaned, frozen, or processed with alcohol. They know exactly what they want. Some want hardened "reddish" propolis, while some other favor the sticky goo type.
It's simple.......anyone can throw some junk out there by scraping the box edges, having paint ships in it, dirt, bee parts, etc. That is what you normally get in many instances. Provide a clean products, build a few contacts, and you can almost ask what you want for the stuff, if you have a good product.
Of course propolis is like honey. Some sell honey for 3 dollars a pound (these are usually the folks that say that is all they need to charge, and do not want to charge more as if they are helping so many others by selling cheap. But it usually just means they have no clue how to properly market and sell their hard earned product, much more valuable than 3 dollars a pound.) Then you have others who did the legwork and sell at designer stores and other location charging much higher than 3 dollars. And some get a premium price for their reputation and repeat customers as they expect the best. But how can honey sell for anywhere from 3 dollars to 15 dollars a pound? Different quality, different marketing, different buyers, etc.
BTW....some of the most expensive and profitable products that use propolis are not used by humans. ;) The real propolis market is for certain animals. And those that buy it, demand just as high quality as they would if they were putting it on their own faces. ;)
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I took some clean propolis I harvested that was frozen and chopped in a electric coffee grinder and then made a paste with honey. I put a dab in my oatmeal daily. Have a recurring sore in my nose and not sure what it is but put the propolis paste in the affected area and in two days it is gone so I believe in it's antibacterial and healing properties. :)
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Anyone have a name or contact of a propolis buyer? And a dark wax buyer? thanks