propolis tincture

propolis tincture came up in another thread, so I thought I would mention it here. handy stuff. good medicine. good for treating wood. good to make bait hives more attractive to swarm scouts. probably ends up in some perfumes. maybe even a good addition to a cocktail.

for my own use, I'm not generally very careful about the recipe. I just scrape some propolis off top cloths and other hive parts, put it into a mason jar, and cover it with 192 proof ethanol for a few weeks. then I strain it through a paper coffee filter and bottle it up.

here's a small batch I started last week:

Hi, my favorite recipe is to freeze it and then smash it into small pieces. That way it gets mixed with alcohol really easy. Keep up the good work, propolis is more valuable than gold.

This stuff needs serious advocating, it's the ideal permie product, it's local, it shows us what fools we are to use pesticides that kill off these wonderful creatures, it's easy to make at home, it works an absolute dream,  so people will be reminded of the person selling it and thinking "maybe he's not that crazy, let's see what more he/she got to say". I apply it weekly,

A local beekeeper gave me propolis, dissolved in alcohol it makes for the best antiseptic sealant you can wish for. Bees produce it from medicinal plants to seal the hive with and keep microbes from entering. You put a drip on the spot and blow gently until the alcohol vaporized, leaving a thin layer of propolis, repeat until closed. It's flexible on a warm spot on the body but not sticky. Nasty cuts from jigsaw blades i treated with it, no infections, closed the deeper layered skin in three days while i kept working. It's nuts nurses don't use it more often. Maybe because people don't like the brown stainage which disappears within a few days.

Local is so important because every location on earth has it's own local microbial spectrum with different local evil microbes that prevail. Local bees especially wild ones have evolved around it is my theory. But this man explains it in much more detail.

Martin Miljkovic wrote:Hi, my favorite recipe is to freeze it and then smash it into small pieces. That way it gets mixed with alcohol really easy. Keep up the good work, propolis is more valuable than gold.

Good advice, Martin, thank you!
We also make propolis tincture, using vodka for alcohol: