AS WELL as making “that nice stuff you put on toast”, bees are also “flying pharmacies”, says James Fearnley, managing director of Nature’s Laboratory.
Talking at the festival in Bradford, he described how bees protect themselves against disease by making a smelly, waxy substance called propolis.
In hot, dry savannah regions where sleeping sickness is common, scientists found that the bee’s propolis is full of chemicals that protect against the sleeping sickness parasite. These chemicals are only found in propolis from areas where sleeping sickness is a problem.
Bees make propolis by modifying resin collected from plants. They pack the resin on to their legs and fly it back to the hive, where it is mixed with wax.
Propolis is used to polish and cap the egg cells, to make air vents, plug holes and coat the entrance to the hive. It is a complex product that contains over 200 chemicals, the exact mix depending on which plants the bees use to collect the resin.