Propolis Spray
Bees use propolis to virtually encase the inside of the hive. It is used to caulk and seal every crack, and a very thin coat of propolis is spread over the surfaces of the honeycomb cells, inside and out. This is important for the prevention of infection in the honeycomb. Propolis is used to sterilize the honeycomb cells that contain the larvae, as well as the cells that store the honey and bee pollen. Propolis is also used extensively at the entrance of the hive to form an elaborate, winding tunnel. Bees literally have to crawl through a tight tunnel of propolis to enter and leave the hive. In this way, bees are cleansed of microbes as they enter the hive, and the sterility of the beehive is maintained. In fact, the beehive is the most sterile environment found in nature. The fact that this structure, located in the wild, and full of food and organisms, can be kept free of disease and infection is quite remarkable. In very real terms, propolis functions as the natural defense and immune system of the beehive.
Bees collect tree resin for propolis, just as they collect pollen and honey for food. Although it is still a matter of debate, research indicates that the chemical structure of resin is altered by the bees secretions during the collection process. Bees work the resin with their front legs, while adding saliva and beeswax to the mixture. The saliva and other secretions are catalysts for biochemical changes within the propolis. The resin is passed to their back legs for storage in their pollen sacs. Bees then transport the resin back to the hive, where it is stored or used.
Bees show definite preferences for certain species of tree resins in their collection of propolis. It appears that bees have unerringly identified the highest quality, and most appropriate raw material to use for propolis. The bee's secretions then transform the resin to optimize the benefits of propolis.
The Importance of Bees
The small little insect that works so tirelessly and quietly around us certainly is one of the reasons, if not a main reason, for the possibility of human development on earth. Without them, the development of life on earth, as we know it now, would have been much different and the conditions for human development may not have existed. The conditions we are talking about here are the appearance of the flower bearing plants and pollinators, with the bees, being the crown jewel of the pollinators. The bees, the flowers, human beings and everything that developed alongside humans are all an interconnected series of events over an enormous amount of time.
In the writings, artwork and symbolism of cultures and religions around the world from time immemorial are references to the bees and the substances they collect in Nature and make in their bodies, namely honey, bee pollen, bee propolis, royal jelly and wax. These substances, along with the bees and the beehive, have been held in high esteem throughout human history in every part of the world. The references are almost always of renewal, rebirth and new beginnings. The references are almost always about the good, positive, reinforcing things of life. They are gifts and blessings.