The Many, Many Wellness Benefits of Bee By-Products

Though they're best known for the fact that they produce honey and, well, can sting you, bees actually create a ton of things that are super beneficial to humans (and bees, of course). "Besides honey, bees make some other wonderful and unique substances, like royal jelly, bee pollen and propolis," says Carly Stein, CEO and founder of Beekeeper's Naturals. "Propolis is a slightly bitter collection of powerfully healing plant and tree resins that are gathered and processed by bees."

"Propolis has well documented germ-fighting properties and is rich in antioxidants as well as hundreds of beneficial plant compounds – bees line every inch of their hives with this sticky stuff to keep things clean and germ-free; it's pretty much their built-in immune system," adds Stein. "They even keep what is essentially a propolis doormat by the hive entrance to ensure no one tracks in any nasties!" And, if they do, Dr. Noah Wilson-Rich, the founding partner and chief scientific officer at The Best Bees Company says that bees can self-medicate by adding more propolis inside their nest after exposure to a disease-causing fungus.

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