By Joshua Kato
Propolis
This is the sticky black and brown resinous material that bees collect from living plants. It has a lot of medicinal elements including treating ulcers, viral and bacterial infections.
Beeswax
Beeswax is the second highest valuable bee product after honey. It has various uses, including making candles and as a base for shoe polish and cosmetics.
From every 20kgs of honey harvested, a farmer retrieves around 500 grams of beeswax. At the moment, a kilogram of beeswax goes for between sh15,000-sh35,000. Cosmetics companies like Movit buy it.
Equipment
– a large container
– a sheet of nylon mosquito mesh
– a strong nylon cord and a needle
– a plastic or polyethylene cover
Procedure:
– Fasten the mosquito mesh over the container with the nylon cord.
– Place honeycombs on the wire mesh so that honey can trickle into the container.
-Cover the honeycombs and container with plastic and secure it fast to the container with another cord.
-Leave the honey and container in the sun. Both honey and wax will seep down into the container. The vex will harden above the honey and can be removed when the money cools down to be decanted and bottled.
Pollen
There is still bee pollen. During their hundreds of visits to flowers,
bees collect a lot of pollen. They then keep this in the hives as part
of their food. It can be harvested from the hives and then processed
for human usage.
It contains high protein levels, it is a proven anti-biotic, anti-dioxidant etc. pollen is extracted.
Other products include bee jelly, bee venom, and honey wine.
