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DEFENDER OF THE CITY
Propolis is collected to protect the colony of bees
itself, hence its name Pro-Polis Before the City or Defender
of the City.
Bees invariably produce more than they need. In commercial
hives they warehouse this additional material sometimes (from
the beekeeper's point of view) in the most inconvenient places.
As well as using it to sterilise the hive and protect the
brood cells they gum the frames to the hive side and fill
up any gaps where potential intruders might enter.
COMMERCIAL COLLECTION OF PROPOLIS
But each colony of bees will only
produce a relatively small quantity of extra propolis per
year, perhaps half a kilo, although they can be encouraged
to produce more - with out harm to themselves - with the use
of special propolis collecting traps.
Commercial producers of propolis require
large quantities (tonnes) of raw material. Major world producers
include China, Russia, South America and USA. Traditionally
there has always been a propolis collection in certain European
countries (Spain, France, Italy) as well as the old Eastern
European countries: Romania, Poland, the old Yugoslavia, Bulgaria.
In all these countries it is collected
using a variety of methods which include scraping and the
use of propolis traps.
NOT ALL COUNTRIES COLLECT PROPOLIS COMMERCIALLY
Not all beekeeping countries collect propolis.
Many countries in the continents of Africa, India as well
as some parts of Asia and even the UK itself have no tradition
of collecting. Usually this is because there is no recognition
of the medicinal value of propolis or because it is
not thought to be commercially viable.
UNDERSTANDING HOW PROPOLIS DIFFERS ROUND
THE WORLD
Not all propolis is the same. Propolis
contains upwards of 180 different chemicals which vary depending
on the local flora, climate and type of bees collecting. BeeVital
in it's major research programme is setting out to map the
chemical and biological properties of propolis from every
part of the world. The reason for this is that although propolis
may differ chemically from country to country we believe it
fulfils a similar role in the hive and therefore is likely
to have the same biological or pharmacological properties
i.e. it is antibacterial or anti fungal etc.
PROPOLIS TESTING AND PURCHASE
Whether it is commercially viable for
you to collect propolis (wherever you are in the world) will
depend on whether your propolis has the necessary biological
properties. BeeVital will test your propolis and if it is
shown to have the necessary properties, may purchase it from
you at a fair price.
THE BEEVITAL COLLECTION SCHEME
BeeVital is developing a number of schemes
to encourage beekeepers to collect propolis including schemes
involving the loan of propolis traps. If you are interested
in any of these schemes then please contact us now to find
out more. If you would like to send us a sample of your raw propolis please fill in the form and send it to us with the sample.
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