How is beeswax made

It takes many scales to build sections of comb. Using their legs and mouth parts called mandibles, workers shape the soft wax flakes into what we know as honeycomb. They grab the wax scales with their legs. Using legs and mouth parts the wax is shaped into thousands of cells. This is a community project and other colony members often help their sisters. They do this by removing the wax scales from a neighbors body and chewing them into shape.

The process of making wax requires honey bees to consume a lot of food. Hence, wax production is a resource heavy task for the honey bee colony. Some reports say that bees must consume 8 pounds of honey to produce 1 pound of wax. That is alot! A colony that has to produce a lot of fresh beeswax each season produces less surplus honey. Therefore, if you find a honey jar containing comb it will be more expensive. For the beekeeper whose bees are not building comb , a lack of enough young adults or food resources are possible problems.

A deep sized frame of honeycomb will have on average about individual cells per side. Each one is in a hexagon shape. Why this shape? The hexagon allows the construction of the most cells in a given space with the smallest amount of beeswax.

When fresh wax is first made by bees, it is a beautiful pristine white. After spending time in the hive, the color of honeycomb changes.

Often progressing from a light yellow, to light brown and if left long enough you will even see black comb. This is due to the tendency of honeycomb to absorb pollen oils, propolis stains and the dirt from thousands of little feet. This is why most beekeepers attempt to rotate out old comb to preserve a healthy colony atmosphere.

Beeswax is used and reused in the hive as much as possible. Because it requires a lot of effort to produce, the colony does not waste any. Humans have many uses for beeswax too. Honey is not the only product beekeepers can sell.

A honeycomb constructed from beeswax is a triumph of engineering. It consists of hexagon shaped cylinders six-sided that fit naturally side-by-side. It has been proven that making the cells into hexagons is the most efficient shape for using the smallest possible amount of wax to contain the highest volume of honey. It has also been shown to be one of the strongest possible shapes while using the least amount of material. The color of beeswax comprising a comb is at first white and then darkens with age and use.

This is especially true if it is used to raise brood. Pigmentation in the wax can result in colors ranging from white, through shades of yellow, orange, red, and darker all the way to brownish black. The color has no significance as to the quality of the wax other than its aesthetic appeal. Formerly, wax was bleached using ionization, sulphuric acid or hydrogen peroxide which resulted in the inclusion of toxic compounds.

Bleaching has now been abandoned by reputable candle manufacturers and other suppliers of beeswax. Worker bees that are younger than 18 days old are the best wax producers.

During this time, a bee secretes beeswax from eight special glands located on its abdomen. The wax comes out colourless and quite brittle. After 18 days, these glands begin to atrophy.

The bee then uses its legs to move the wax from its abdomen to its mouth where it starts to chew on it, adding saliva softens it up. During the process, the beeswax picks up bits of honey, pollen, and propolis which darkens its colour. Now having a pliable construction material, the worker bees use the beeswax to build the familiar hexagonal honeycomb that makes up the insides of beehives.

Bees use these combs for honey storage and to raise their young! Female worker bees, whose lifespan is about four weeks, possess eight special wax-producing glands on their abdomens. The young worker bees are most efficient at wax production. Their wax glands start to degenerate after plus-minus 18 days until the end of its life.

Beeswax is made by these bees through the consumption of honey produced from the collected flower nectar. To produce one pound of wax, six to eight pounds of honey are ingested Source: Beeswax Production, Harvesting, Processing and Products, Coggshall and Morse.

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