# propolis pricing



## Fl_Beak

I've just pulled propolis from a couple of those plastic traps, and wondering what is the going market price. I've heard five bucks per gram, but after weighing out some five gram bags, it doesn't seem like a lot to offer a customer.


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## BigGun

I've kinda watched it on eBay and have seen it go for a buck a gram.


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## Bee Whisperer

Who buys it?


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## Fl_Beak

buck per gram seems better. At fiver per gram I was thinking to heck with honey and NUC sales, lol.

@Bee Whisperer- we haven't sold any yet, but some customers with cancer have been very interested in it.


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## The Honey Householder

I sell over a 100 lbs a year at $65+ a lb. Only wish I had more time to produce more.:thumbsup:


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## therub

The Honey Householder said:


> I sell over a 100 lbs a year at $65+ a lb. Only wish I had more time to produce more.:thumbsup:


How do you capture it? How much do you get per hive per year?


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## Mbeck

The Honey Householder said:


> I sell over a 100 lbs a year at $65+ a lb. Only wish I had more time to produce more.:thumbsup:


If you don't mind sharing?
Where do you sell it?

You sell everything but the buzz! :thumbsup:


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## The Honey Householder

My propolis is produced when we scrape the boxes. Then it is all cleaned and packaged in bagged. I sell a lot on Ebay which ships all over the world. In this business you have to sell everything, even the byproducts. Not a bad income for a byproduct.:shhhh:


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## snl

The Honey Householder said:


> Then it is all cleaned and packaged in bagged.


How do you clean it?


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## Adam Westbury

Yes how do you clean it, and also, does anyone know of a good propolis trap for an 8-frame hive? All I can find online anywhere is for a ten framer. I've heard of just laying a mesh window screen over the top hive body under the inner cover and propping it up just a bit so the bees will fill the screen with propolis then you can roll the screen up, stick it in the freezer, and when it's hard just unroll it and it all pops off. Anyone have any experience with this?


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## jmgi

Just use the 10 frame propolis trap and cut it to fit the 8 frame. When using the plastic traps there is very little cleaning involved, usually just a few dead bees stuck to it or bee parts which can be scraped off easily. I find that getting the trap free of propolis requires more than just freezing it and twisting it over a tub or in a plastic bag, you usually have to scraped at it or smack it with the back end of your hive tool to free up every last little bit. John


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## BMAC

The Honey Householder said:


> My propolis is produced when we scrape the boxes. Then it is all cleaned and packaged in bagged. I sell a lot on Ebay which ships all over the world. In this business you have to sell everything, even the byproducts. Not a bad income for a byproduct.:shhhh:


Oh so I should not have given 1/2 a lbs away? Oops. My bad.

Oh well poor guy is fighting cancer.


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## rtoney

28 grams per oz and 1.00 per gram would work out to 448.00 per pound or 44,800.00 per 100 pounds that would be quite a retail mark up if wholesale is 65.00 per.


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## Robbin

What do you use propolis for?


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## rtoney

Google (propolis health benefits) & you will get a load of information on propolis. Just like anything else you want to check out your sources for the pros and cons. I tend to believe most of the pros when it comes to products of the hive but not all.


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## gmcharlie

Seems to me scrapeing the hive would yield a combination of wax/ propolis??? how do you quickly determine which is which??
Typical propolis traps are placed on in fall and the bees fill them up trying to close up the hive for winter.
window mesh screens will work, but they don't clean well and the spacing is a bit small


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## BMAC

rtoney said:


> 28 grams per oz and 1.00 per gram would work out to 448.00 per pound or 44,800.00 per 100 pounds that would be quite a retail mark up if wholesale is 65.00 per.


There is actually 454 grams per lbs so your lbs would be a few more bucks.


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## Michael Bush

>I've heard of just laying a mesh window screen over the top hive body under the inner cover and propping it up just a bit so the bees will fill the screen with propolis then you can roll the screen up, stick it in the freezer, and when it's hard just unroll it and it all pops off. Anyone have any experience with this? 

Yes. It works fine. Unroll it in a garbage sack or some other container so it doesn't fly all over the room...


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## cerezha

Bee Whisperer said:


> Who buys it?


Propolis is well known in European and Eastern traditional and non-traditional medicine. In Russia, we use propolis quite often. It is an official "medicine" and you could purchase it at the drug-store in the form of tincture or liniment. Eastern culture know propolis very well also (for couple of thousand years?). In US it is difficult to find a good propolis because people just do not know how to collect/treat it properly. Also, I guess, the source of the "sap" is very important. The best propolis in Russia comes from spring unopened poplar buds - it has very distinctive odor. I bought some powdered propolis on the farmers market (1 oz $10) and it was not good. I am using my Russian propolis. It must be solid, not a powder. 10% wax is not a problem. It should not be "cleaned", it has to be raw. Plastic traps is not good idea - plastifiers from the plastic will contaminate the ptopolis. Scraping the boxes/frames sounds like good idea, but keep in mind - somebody will consume it afterwards. Somewhere on beesource, I posted large post regarding medicinal use of good propolis. Propolis is normally used in small quantities - my family need in propolis is may be 10 gr per year.

Mainly from the beesource  I learned how much chemicals beekeepers put inside the hive to keep bee "healthy". All those chemicals accumulated in the wax* and propolis.* One who is selling propolis for medicinal use should be responcible and notify the customers that propolis potentially may be contaminated with deadly (to mites) chemicals


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## deknow

lead appears to be a problem in propolis. personally, i would not sell to some who is going to use it directly.
cc pollen buys it, and has a large room sized line of equipment to clean it (wax and dirt), and remove the lead....and the liability for some poor kids lead ingestion.

deknow


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## DavidZ

deknow said:


> lead appears to be a problem in propolis.
> deknow


old thread, but where does this so called lead in the propolis supposedly come from?


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## Joe Mac

Maybe from lead paint? That's just a guess and the hives/paint would have to be really old as lead has been banned from paint for a long time.


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## Qvox

Joe Mac said:


> Maybe from lead paint? That's just a guess and the hives/paint would have to be really old as lead has been banned from paint for a long time.


That was my thought when I first heard about lead in the propolis years ago. It has to be coming from a lead source in paint, or some other wood preservative or perhaps pesticide. Bees don't make lead.

I think I first read about them finding lead in it in the early 90's in europe. The story has persisted since then. So my guess is the source for the lead was from the paint on hives. I'd like to see an updated US analysis, since we removed lead from our gas, paint, and other products decades ago now. 

I'd be leary about getting propolis, or any bee products for that matter, from countries with lax enviornmental laws.


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## DavidZ

dump


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