Bees, propolis and grass in sugar syrup, 5 pictures

So I am going to make a thread with some pretty pictures. Promise it won’t be too long, smiling. I am a beekeeper. At one time I maintained 10 colonies, but now, only have one. Ten colonies is nothing when you think of many that keep hundreds, and perhaps thousands, but not my gig. Next year will be telling a different tale though. I intend to build up this colony, should it survive winter nicely, and perhaps do a split and purchase a couple of nuc colonies, or perhaps just some package bees – not sure at this time where I will be with bee-keeping.

One time when doing a hive inspection, I found this mass on the bottomboard of the colony. We lived in an area of slugville. Yes, the wet west coast of southern B.C. Now live in the dry Okanagan, what a contrast. I digress. This is all about propolis and another surprise, to do with grass (and not the kind you smoke), you’ll read later. A slug must have decided to take up residence in a bee colony. They did not like that. Stung the lunk to death and then embalmed it in propolis. This is the way for bees to keep their home clean, embalming in propolis. That slug would probably still be preserved a thousand years from now, smiling.

Propolis is a product that bees go out to gather from trees, flowers, all things that create resin, we can also refer to it as pitch. Certain bees are designated to be propolis gathers, they make up their minds who will take on this sticky chore. At times it is difficult for a bee to remove the propolis and other bees will help out. Bees are amazing the cohesiveness they have in their colony. Each has their job, and they do it well, dependent upon age of the bee. Some are cell cleaners (baby bees clean their own cell from which they were born and do this cell cleaning for a few days then go on to other chores), some are water gatherers, some nectar gatherers, some guards, some just sit around and look pretty. It is said that bees spend about ¾ of their lives in a state of rest. This assures that there is always a bounty of bees to “come up to the call” should there be a need for a mass of bees to react. I think this of when there is a threat, or a copious supply of nectar or pollens to be found. Interesting, most interesting this life of the bee. Oh well, onto some pictures in a few minutes.

Bees use propolis for cleansing and disinfecting their home, to seal cracks, to bond things together so they don’t move, frames are very difficult sometimes to lift out of a colony’s home, stuck like glue, smiling. Propolis is used by the bees for many things. Humans can definitely take advantage of this by product of bees, and use it in their lives too. Powerful stuff. Humans would be wise to have a supply of this in their home too, propolis has other stuff added to it by the bees, it is not just resins from Mother Nature, enzymes particularly come to mind.

So, let’s look at the first picture. This is the slug....I have pictures of my Cousin with the blob in her hand, but shan’t go there, as that would put her face and her Husband’s here, so not a good thing, but they were intrigued. This blob was passed around the family circle at a family get together, so long ago.
The blob is on a tea plate, gives an idea too of the size of it.

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This is of the slug in the hand

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These are different images of a honeybee on top of some frames of a colony. The top lid has been removed and I was just marvelling at the amount of propolis that the bees had gathered and stuck in place. They are amazing at how they can make mounds of this incredibly wonderful smelling stuff. Like a walk in the forest on a warm summer day. Smells just like that. I keep a bottle of propolis blobs in a jar in my kitchen and often will take a sniff. Takes me to a beautiful place in memory of a summer day, even in the midst of a cold winter. That smell of the forest, so nice.

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There is so much heat from the bee colony that rises, sometimes the copious amounts of propolis will drip down the side of the bee box

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This was just an interesting thing that happened to me. During times when the bees require extra nutrition, say in early spring, when their winter supplies are low, or other times, the beekeeper will give the bees a container (which is called an inner feeder) which is a black container that fits inside the colony home. This is filled with sugar syrup. A half half solution of water to sugar, or sometimes a 2:1 solution of sugar water, dependent upon the bees’ needs. The bees will consume this (it is approximately one gallon of liquid sugar) in no time at all if they require it. Amazing when you have 40,000 bees (or so) all taking a little sip for their innards or to place into cells for later use, how much can be consumed, smiling. In the inner feeder is usually placed something that the bees can climb onto, to suck up sugar water. This particular instance I thought I would place a bunch of grass that I had gathered for them to land on. The bees thought the grass was intruding and took it upon themselves to take the grass away when I had the lid off. Amazing, I watched and sometimes it took two bees working together to get the grass out. I ended up removing all the grass myself. Placing the sugar syrup covered grass far away from the bee colony so that it did not attract other bees that could have come from elsewhere. The beekeeper must be aware of the fact that there are other bees in the vicinity and this can incite a robbing frenzy to come on. Careful when you are keeping bees, so many things to learn. Still personally, have not graduated from that school of hard knocks, smiling.

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So neat! I would like some day to have even just a little bee box for honeybees, just to enjoy their presence and labours. Thanks for sharing

How wonderful nature is!
Beekeeping has always fascinated me and I love LOVE bee products. I buy honey by the 5 gallon pails when I can find it and also have beeswax, propolis and cappings on hand if I can source them. Sadly for me, I am allergic to the venom of stinging insects from mosquitos to bumblebees, all in varying degrees, but in some cases enough to be lethal, so beekeeping has never been an option. My uncle kept bees for years though and was quite an expert. He is 93 now. I wonder if his use of bee products contributed to his healthy longevity.
I am very impressed CynthiaM, with your bees and your ability to manage them.

Beautiful pic's Cindi, thanks for sharing.

I am starting my beekeeping adventure in the spring, I will be working with a couple of beekeepers so they will be teaching as we go. Can't wait!

Love the pictures and the information. Thanks Cynthia

Thank you for the kind words everyone. Fat Ewe, I don't doubt for a moment the life among the bees helped your Uncle to live to a very old age. 93 is good in years. And I bet my bottom dollar, that being an expert beekeeper, the occasional, and probably, only occasional sting from the honeybee helped to keep any arthritic conditions away. The only time I have been stung by bees is when I have inadvertently harmed one. Perhaps might add, that it would be when working a colony and I may have squished one. That is why I work only with bare hands with my bees, so I can feel when I am close by. Once stung, that sting pheromone is very strong that is released as the stinger is everted, this brings other bees to be drawn to that scent, and you have a bunch of angry bees, smiling. Honestly, in about 7 years among the bees, I could probably count the stings using the fingers on both my hands, not many encounters with the sting. Sometimes wish I had more, as I do have knees that bug me now and then, time for some bee venom therapy the bees are still flying -- have a most wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Yes, Cynthia, my uncle also did not "suit up" to tend bees and just wore his coveralls and a hat as usual. He used his bare hands too and although I do not know how often he was stung, I am sure it was not as much as people might have thought. He does have arthritis, but he is also and has always been, a total naturalist, eating only health foods and drinking black and green teas. He and his young wife came to see my mother on her 80th birthday (he was then 86) and they asked if there was anyplace to go dancing. I took them along to the ballroom dance that I always attended and they danced non stop from 8:30 to 10:30, even through intermissions, and I mean danced, none of the old folks shuffling. Then they asked for a ride home and said they had a great time. Maybe it was the bees?

Cynthia you are amazing!!! I am fascinated by bees. I would love to try my hand at it. The slug thing is waaay too gross. The grass part... amazing!

Fat ewe, yep, bees, youth, non-arthritic, happy, will outwork the young, yep, yep. I bet that man could make the young men so painstakingly and seriously jealous of what he could do....bees and youth, is that fountain of youth that we all yearn to discover. Yes, perhaps no, but I can bet my bottom dollar, yes. Beautiful days, CynthiaM.

Fascinating stuff, CynthiaM! Thank you for sharing Also very timely because I have decided to become a beekeeper this spring. I sent you an email tonight before I read this string. Great photos too!

I love it when a post is brought back and I can revisit it. Especially when we are in the dreads of winter, it is cold, it is white and I go back to a sunny day. These pictures of the bees on a warm sunny day took me back to our old life, back in Maple Ridge. Where I worked very hard with my bees, and enjoyed them even more. I still don't know if my lone colony way out back is alive. In all honesty. I think that today I am going to don my sorrell boots and go and take a look. It is going to take me about 10 minutes to walk to the back of the property. We have had an accumulation since December of about 32 inches (yep, write it on the calendar each time it snows. Last year to this date we had only 2 inches, with a big snowfall on the 20th of January last year of 6 inches). gonna be a lot of water melting in spring this year. Right...so I think that I will go and see if there are any signs of bee activity. What I mean by that is...the bees, if they are alive and well (which I see no reason why not, I did not take off any honey this year and that was left to the bees, and there was lots of good nectar and pollen sources around all summer and fall) so they should have full tummies. They will move that winter cluster that they are all huddled in, moving the thoracic muscles to create heat (think shivering) and around as a group and cover cells that have honey in them and eat, in that warm Jamaican humid cluster.

If the bees are still alive and doing well, I will see in a moment when I look at them. If they are alive and doing well, what I expect to see is not much snow on the permiter of their roof, nor on the bottom board in the front of their bee box. The heat a strong colony generates will melt snow at the entrance and on top of the colony. Warm air rises, and the movement of air inside also will push air out the bottom, odd, but it does. I’ll try to get a picture, be that good, bad or the ugly and tell the tale if that lone colony has survived so far.

I remember one day back on the coast, it was a cool morning. It would have perhaps been September, warm days, cool nights. I was just nosey and wanted to peek inside the bottom of the colony to see if I could see any guard bees guarding the inside bottom of the home. There were no bees outside, it was quite cool and bees don’t fly until the air temperature suits them. The entrance reducer had been removed because it was very warm in the daytime and the bees needed lots of air to pull in to evaporate the nectar and turn it into honey. The beekeeper will have an entrance reducer, use it sometimes, other times not. It important at times to close that approximate 16 inch by 1 inch (length X width) down to a space that will allow only one bee or a few bees out at a time. There should always be a small entrance at the top of the hive too, to allow the escape of moisture. These are used in times when their are robbing instances, from other bees, or even those dreaded paper wasps, which can decimate a colony, if there are too many. Also when it is cold. Summertime heat, if conditions are good, that entrance can be left totally open with no reducer used.

Right..where was I? Ya, my face in the entrance. When I am working with the bees, I always, always, always, wear my hat and veil. With face protection, I am protected in the important areas and I feel confident to do anything I need to do. As my face neared the entrance of the colony, some extreme pleasure arose to my nostrils and face. I could feel the very warm air coming out on my face and I could smell, what I call nothing short of heaven. My face went into an incredible area that was emitting the smell of honey and the forest, the smell of the propolis took me to the forest, on a warm and beautiful day. That experience is one that I will never forget. They say that the sense of smell is one of the most powerful senses that we have, and I am truly a believer of that.

Bees are wonderful. They are a pleasure to be around and they are so beneficial for us and our Mother Earth.

I was stung on the face once, when I was being a little careless and in a hurry. That was a very unpleasant experience. I was trying to catch a swarm of bees that was not up very far in a tree and I cut the limb. My Husband, who was helping, was a little bit aways. That branch was heavier than I thought and I dropped it. The swarm of bees, which ordinarily is very docile (having consumed copious amounts of honey to last the trip on finding a new home), was very angry. They were jostled to the ground and some landed on my head. Oooooh, ouch....yes....learned a lesson that day. I did not have on a veil, just being in a hurry and paid the price. Always, always now, don’t care what, if doing something with my bees, on goes a veil, smiling. Look at me!!

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Yep, now look at this picture. I was doing something in the apiary (beeyard) and my Husband came up to hang out with me. He had a beer in his hand. I had performed a task with the bees that caused a bit of a colony disturbance. Sometimes some things will annoy some bees, others just don’t mind. Well, guess there were a few that were pissed right off. Husband had left the scene to go do something else, he could feel the agitation. I was armed with my veil, he was not. He left, came back because he had left his beer on the rock pile. After the fact, he told me that he saw the bee coming after him. Serious. The bee was on an agenda. He turned and walked away, but nope, that single bee was gonna get him, come blazes or high water. Which it did. Right on the eyelid. Yep. That dude was swollen for a good couple of days. Yep. People laughed at him and got a good kick out of that.

So, I honestly have to say, from personal experience, to anyone that is going to keep bees. You can work bees with shorts, no gloves, tank tops, whatever you choose, but remember to protect your face. If you do this, you are on top of the world. Being stung in other places is a nevermind. It will do you more good than bad. Of course, now should retract what I say. If you suffer from a severe allergy to bee venom, and go into anaphylactic shock, don’t even get bees.

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Have a most awesome day, CynthiaM.

Must agree with CynthiaM about the smell of propolis! The freshest whiff of tree rich Christmas.

I have a little bag of propolis she gave me that I have used to amke horse salve. Also use it on myself. Mixed some lavender in too and between the smell of the propolis and the lavender, I just want to smell it and not smear it on a horse.

CYnthia, you might want to consider keeping some homeopathic Apis around, for bee stings. Apis and Cantharis, two handy 'sting' remedies to have on hand.

Bees, flowers, husbands drinking beer...where is summer?

Uno, do you have enough propolis to make a tincture from? That is powerful remedy for so many things. If not, say the word, got a bunch hangin' around in my freezer. Yours for the taking, if you should so choose. Lots of it, smiling. I used to spend a whole lotta time back on the coast scraping propolis off the frames of the colonies for saving for another day. Haven't had a chance to gather propolis here in the Okanagan. The propolis is different coloured and scented slightly different in different areas, so they say. Sticky business, but hard as a rock when it is cold. Beautiful days, CynthiaM.

Very cool. I had no clue about propolis. Much less some more of the things you mentioned. Thanks for the pictures and descriptive write up.