What is propolis?

Some common misspellings include “Propolisse”, “Propolice”, “Propolys”, “Propoline”… and even “Apropolis”!

Despite the recent use of this substance into our everyday usage, “Propolis” is not a neologism, but a word whose semantic origin is to be found in Greek etymology.

Greeks had noticed that certain breeds of bees reduced the entrance to the hive with this resin plant to defend their colony. They called it pro-polis that means in front of the city.

The word propolis also comes from the Latin verb propolire meaning to coat. Indeed, Honeybees smears the inside of their habitat with this resin to protect themselves against microbial attacks.

Propolis is a rare natural substance made by honeybees.

Propolis is a resinous, gummy and balsamic substance collected by honeybees from the buds of certain trees.

It has a viscous consistency. Honeybees can alter the composition by adding to it some of their secretions and wax.

Only the forager bees (the oldest and most experienced honeybees in the hive) are assigned to this task. Their job is to collect the resins found in the buds of various plant species (such as poplar, birch, alder, elm, beech and certain conifers) and in some cases those excreted from the bark of the trees they visit.

Nectar, pollen or propolis are not collected by honeybees during the same flight nor within the same period of a honeybee’s life.

To collect propolis, the forager bee chooses, removes and shapes the resins with her mandibles before placing them on the baskets of her hind legs.

It can take several hours for the bee to build up her ball of resin.

At the end of the harvest, she returns to the hive and positions herself near the place where the raw material is to be processed and used.

From then on, the worker bees will take the useful quantities of resin by stretching it into a thread until it breaks.

As the propolis is sticky, it is rarely used as such.
To prevent the honeybees from getting stuck – which would be fatal for them – the worker bees mix wax and their own secretions into the resins, using pharyngeal trituration. This gives the product a malleable and sufficiently rigid texture.

Propolis, once removed from its vegetable source, is returned to the hive and used in different ways by bees:

• Cement – to glue the different parts of the hive, to block cracks in wood, to reduce the hive entrance to better control the passage of intruders such as mice.
• Lagging – ideal to maintain a constant temperature for brood development.
• Antiseptic treatment of waxy cells before the laying of the queen who performs in a clean environment.
• Biological shield – by covering the inside of their habitat with a thin film of this resin, the bees are free from diseases. Thanks to its adapted and complex composition, it protects the colony against many microbial infections, viral and fungal that threatens constantly. For example, they can “mummify” bodies of hungry honey predators ( Death’s-head Hawkmoth, small rodents…) that enter the hive and are too heavy to be evacuated once killed. Once covered with the resin, the biological body of the predator is no longer rotting and do not gangrene the colony! This shows the extraordinary potential of this outstanding product. The waxy cells in which the queen will lay its eggs are also lined with a layer of propolis to form a sterile environment for the harmonious development of the egg.
• Embalming: a mouse has just entered the hive, probably attracted by the sweet smell of honey or just by the warmth of a shelter. The rodent has not made the right choice and ends up in a few seconds, attacked by dozens of bees on alert and ready to leave lose their lives to save the colony. Less than a minute will be enough to paralyze and kill the intruder. The mouse is too big to be moved to eliminate all potential infectious hazards that cause its decomposition, the honeybees embalm the foreign body with propolis and keep the internal environment of the hive sanitized. Like an Egyptian mummy, the mouse will gradually be dehydrated, remain fully intact for ages.

In a nutshell, we can say that propolis ensures the beehive’health.