laurence edwardsOwner at Black Mountain Honey

Why Bees Use Propolis: Protecting Their Hive from Sunlight

19 Sept 2024 · 0 min

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In this segment, Laurence Edwards explains that bees heavily coat parts of their hive with propolis to block sunlight. Bees naturally prefer dark, cavity-like spaces and are averse to light entering the hive, such as from roof lights. The video shows a substantial amount of propolis used to seal openings, illustrating the bees' effort to create a darker, more protected environment within the hive.

See how much propolis is underneath it. Now you've got to feel a little bit sorry for these bees. Look at the level of propolis that they've put in there just to try and give themselves a little bit of respite from that sun that's coming in there. Bees like dark places like tree cavities. They do not like roof lights or light coming into the hive at all, and you can see that from the copious amounts of propolis that they've used to try and seal that up.