# Propilis Cleaning care and sale



## djei5 (Apr 24, 2011)

If you are using propolis traps there is rarely any contaminants.


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## burns375 (Jul 15, 2013)

20lbs doesn't sound too small Charlie. That should be worth atleast a thousand. 

Member "JMGI" is in the business and may be able to help you out. I think #1 raw goes for about avg $60/lb.


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## Hazel-Rah (May 12, 2013)

I posted this about some tinctures I've been making. Although it assumes your are starting with pretty clean propolis, the traps are REALLY nice. I've sold a couple quarts worth and I think you can charge whatever your naturapath community will spend...

http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...Ederberry-Tincture-and-other-Cures-for-Cancer

A beekeeper I worked with in western Oregon dissolved his 'non-food-grade' propolis in denatured alcohol and combined with linseed oil. He used it to 'paint' his hive bodies. It was a great product, the bees loved it - seriously. I hope to be able to turn my 2nds propolis around this way when I have a few pounds... 20 would go a long way.

I'm not commercial, so I can't say much about bulk prices. Or about heating it, since I've only used it raw...


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## burns375 (Jul 15, 2013)

From what I understand buyers want it straight from the hive, unadulterated. 

I tried a tincture with everclear. Gotta love kentucky! I dissolved about 3 oz of scrappings from unused equipment and boxes and filtered and evaporated. Turned out to be very clean product, nice yellow orange color. A large majority of the raw propolis dissolved rather quickly. But there was another distinctive substance left behind, sorta gummy not totally dissolved. Is this the wax component in propolis?


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## cg3 (Jan 16, 2011)

I've been fooling with the traps some. It does seem to have some bee parts and wax in it. Is there a routine to clean it? Is that expected by buyer?


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## Hazel-Rah (May 12, 2013)

burns375 said:


> I dissolved about 3 oz of scrappings from unused equipment and boxes and filtered and evaporated. Turned out to be very clean product, nice yellow orange color. A large majority of the raw propolis dissolved rather quickly. But there was another distinctive substance left behind, sorta gummy not totally dissolved. Is this the wax component in propolis?


If you are just going to evaporate it could you just use denatured alcohol since that seems much less expensive then Everclear? Would that still be wholesale-able? And I do think you get some wax in your propolis, but it seems like you get the least in the fall. During the 'propolis flow'.


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

I have not dissolved propolis in Everclear as of yet, but I am thinking that if anything gummy is leftover and won't dissolve its probably beeswax. I know when I go to scrape my traps off there is usually a tiny bit of wax applied to the trap in some places, I know its wax rather than propolis because my propolis is always orange colored and the wax is light yellow.


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## gmcharlie (May 9, 2009)

Most of my propolis has a greenish tinge to it....


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## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

Scraping are a by product (something that comes from something you already have to do.) Traps are something you do in addition. Lucky I have a Mom that still cleans and bags mine for me for $40 a lb and I sell for $65+ a lb. It takes an avg of a pound an hour to clean and package for retail. We do sell everything we produce each year. What we don't retail we wholesale. Uncleaned scraping are wholesaling for $25 a lb. and good clean retail propolis is going for $8 oz to $65 a lb. 

Lots of nice color propolis coming in now.


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## rtoney (Apr 20, 2011)

Unless I am missing something this went from how do you clean; to how to make tinctures to how much you get for it. If you scrape the box and even traps how do you clean it for bagging and know you have only propilis?


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## Hazel-Rah (May 12, 2013)

burns375 said:


> I dissolved about 3 oz of scrappings from unused equipment and boxes and filtered and evaporated. Turned out to be very clean product, nice yellow orange color. A large majority of the raw propolis dissolved rather quickly. But there was another distinctive substance left behind, sorta gummy not totally dissolved. Is this the wax component in propolis?


That remains the only method of 'cleaning' propolis I have ever heard of. I experimented with traps this year and found them to be remarkably clean. Although I have never sold to bulk buyers, what I am seeing coming out of my traps seems market ready. I think when you are dealing with raw hive products there has to be some expectations of bee legs... Maybe that's just an assumption.

Several methods for dealing with scraped or 2nds propolis were also discussed... IMO 'scraped' propolis can never be clean enough for medicinal/food-grade applications, surely other people will feel differently.


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## Beeslave (Feb 6, 2009)

Put scrapings in 5 gallon pail(no more then half full), fill with water, stir, junk floats to top, skim off junk, stir, skim off junk, slowly pour off water, fill again with water, stir, skim, stir, skim....repeat until no junk floats to the top. Pour what is left on bottom of the pail into screened container to drain. After draining pour onto plastic and spread out to dry.

What is left is mostly propolis except where wax and wood is stuck to bigger chunks.

Bee Hive Botonicals will buy this cleaned propolis for $12.00 per lb if it has minimal wax pieces in it. Minimum amount they buy is 300 lb batches. Before purchase it needs to be tested for chemical contamination(fluvalinate). If the chemical test is positive you pay the $200 testing fee. If negative they pay for the testing.


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## Beeslave (Feb 6, 2009)

Householder-I'll hand deliver a few hundred lbs to you for $20.00 lb....You can make a quick grand....I can make an extra grand, pay for my fuel and motel, get to do some sight seeing and have conversation with a fellow beekeeper.lol


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## Jed (Feb 23, 2013)

The Honey Householder said:


> Scraping are a by product (something that comes from something you already have to do.) Traps are something you do in addition. Lucky I have a Mom that still cleans and bags mine for me for $40 a lb and I sell for $65+ a lb. It takes an avg of a pound an hour to clean and package for retail. We do sell everything we produce each year. What we don't retail we wholesale. Uncleaned scraping are wholesaling for $25 a lb. and good clean retail propolis is going for $8 oz to $65 a lb.
> 
> Lots of nice color propolis coming in now.


who do you sell it to wholesale i got a bunch i need to get rid of


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

The Honey Householder said:


> Scraping are a by product (something that comes from something you already have to do.) Traps are something you do in addition. Lucky I have a Mom that still cleans and bags mine for me for $40 a lb and I sell for $65+ a lb. It takes an avg of a pound an hour to clean and package for retail. We do sell everything we produce each year. What we don't retail we wholesale. Uncleaned scraping are wholesaling for $25 a lb. and good clean retail propolis is going for $8 oz to $65 a lb.
> 
> Lots of nice color propolis coming in now.


I get about 4 oz. per trap when I scrape them off, usually takes a couple months to get plugged pretty good. So that's 1 lb. for every 4 traps. Virtually no labor involved with cleaning it. Traps are cheap to buy in quantity and pay for themselves with first scraping with money to spare. For someone who is a numbers guy, this should be a no brainer I would think.


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## burns375 (Jul 15, 2013)

Looking for information on #2 propolis. The stuff at the bottom of filtered and rendered comb. I just did a large removal on a fallen beech tree for the parks. Very big hive, atleast 3 years old, lots of old black wax. 

I got about 3 quarts of straw yellow wax and about 1/2 qt of "propolis". Is this stuff worth anything or of any use?


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