Is Bee Propolis Sustainable?

Is bee propolis sustainable? While humans have many uses for bee propolis, the bee hive also needs enough to get through the winter.

Reader Contribution by Dawn Combs
Updated on October 16, 2022
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by AdobeStock/David

Is bee propolis sustainable? While humans have many uses for bee propolis, the bee hive also needs enough to get through the winter.

It is often hard to explain to new customers why we do not have some of the typical beekeeper products on our farmer’s market tables. Our farm, Mockingbird Meadows, has 35 hives as of this writing and they sit prominently above our farm pond. That is surely enough hives that we have plenty of pollen, honey, propolis, comb and royal jelly to go around.

Not Your Typical Beekeepers

We raise our bees sustainably. To us, this means that we focus our practices on the health of the bees, above all else. We want our bees to be self-sustaining and healthy without heroic intervention from us. Our strict practices carry the theme that the bee knows how to do “bee” business better than we do. We stay out of her way, provide an environment in which she can be successful and remove all stressors that we can control.

To this end, there are some bee products we simply will never carry on our farm in any significant quantity. Propolis is a product I see gaining momentum in natural health circles. While I do not refute the research that propolis is healthy for humans, I disagree with “farming” it per se.

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