BEESWAX

...is marvelously complex, even with our most advanced technologies, man has not been able to reproduce it in the laboratory. Beeswax is the material used by honeybees in the construction of combs to be used for reproduction and food storage.

Beeswax is secreted by wax glands that are located on the underbelly of the abdomen of worker bees. Bees that are 12 - 18 days old are best suited for this task. These girls first gorge themselves with honey and hang in festoons at or near the site of building operations. The wax flakes are then secreted in distinct layers from both sides of 4 plates and transferred from the abdomen to the mandibles with her forelegs.

Secretion from mandible glands is used in masticating the scales and building combs. When first deposited by the producing bee, masticated wax in spongy and flaky but later it is manipulated again and thereby becomes smoother and more compact.

The whole process of removing, masticating and affixing one scale to the comb requires about 4 minutes. It is white when first secreted, but lemon yellow or straw colored when rendered from the honeycomb. It possesses a subtle odor reminiscent of the honey, pollen and propolis aromas produced in the bee colony.

On the average, 8 pounds of honey are consumed for each pound of wax made by the colony. Beeswax is a byproduct of the beekeeping industry. Once the honeybees build the comb, ripen nectar into honey and fill the cells, they seal the cells with cappings. In removing the crop of honey; we uncap the frames of honey with a hot knife to expose the honey and extract it from the frame using centrifugal force. It is those cappings that are rendered for beeswax, leaving the honeycomb intact for the bees to reuse.

On average, 20 - 25 pounds of wax are produced for every ton of honey extracted.