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Bee Prepared to Bee Blown Away By Bees Wax Facts
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Bees wax is naturally produced by honey bees within the hive where the temperature must be between 91 and 97 degrees before it can be created.
Honey bees are blessed with four pairs of wings and apart from the fact this makes them accomplished flyers it also enables them to use them efficiently to beat their wings to keep the hive at the temperature required.
Female worker bees actually produce the wax from glands that are contained in their abdomens.
Depending upon how old the worker bee is, the sizes of her wax glands are determined. As she matures and engages in daily flights to forage for food, her wax glands begin to diminish.
In its earliest form, it is colourless and clear. However, as the female worker bee begins to chew and grind the wax, it changes to a more opaque colour.
Bee's wax also tends to darken to more of a yellow or brownish shade as bits of pollen and also Propolis are introduced.
The Italian Honey bee is by far the most popular bee for the production of bees wax.
Their wax is brilliant white. Wax that is extracted from the brood comb, which is where the queen bee lays her eggs, is generally darker than the other wax used to make the rest of the comb.
Why do Bees Make Bulk Bees Wax?
The female worker bee produces bulk beeswax in order to build the elaborate honeycomb cells that house and protect the queen's eggs and the colony's young.
She also uses bee's wax to build honeycombs that will store pollen and honey.
Once honey production has taken place the bees will cap this with their bees wax, this is the formation of the honeycomb and the very basis of raw honey…..Mmmm, you really must try this.
What Skills Do The Bees Need to Make Bees Wax?
In order to produce wax, worker bees must eat as much as eight times the amount in honey.
To accomplish this, the worker bee flies approximately 150,000 miles, this equals approximately six times the earth’s circumference, in order to produce just one pound of valuable bee’s wax.
This is a lot further, almost three times in fact than the distance they need to fly to produce a pound of honey.
Bees Wax Uses
Workers also produce bee's wax as a means of storing honey for winter months when food is scarce due to the lack of flowers from which they can forage nectar.
Though humans rob hives for bee's wax that is used for making candles or used as lubricants, the actual intent of these tiny geniuses in producing bee's wax is to preserve their colony during the leanest winter months.
It is even interesting to note that the worker bee only lives a few weeks in the summer, which means that she spends all of her adult life producing bulk beeswax in order to build a hive and preserve food that she will never even live to enjoy.
And produce the honey which we benefit also from eating…………Delicious!
Worker bees are even keen on bulk beeswax efficiency when building the hive. Mathematicians have long appreciated that the hexagon shape actually uses less of the worker bee's wax for the exact volume of honey each cell of the hive will hold.
What do Scientists Think about Bees Wax?
Scientists have figured that round, square, triangular or any other shape simply would not have the same efficiency as the hexagon shape chosen by the worker bee.
What was once a mystery has been thoroughly studied and appreciated by scientists and scholars worldwide.
The complex process of producing bee's wax and its usefulness in creating a functioning hive, gives insight into the purposeful, albeit short, life of the female worker.
Bee's wax has been used throughout the centuries in trade, art and commercial products.
However, none of these compare to the original use of bees wax in the preservation of a highly social class of insect that is so important to life everywhere.
Are there Any Other Uses For It?
Oh you will be surprised at the many uses! Not only has the honey bee devised such an amazing feat for which its existence is quite dependant upon but humans have worked out how to use bees wax in a variety of ways over several thousand years.
For example it is used in more than one hundred and twenty industries.
For coating man made drugs. My preference lies with natural health and natural medicine.
For making polish, furniture and shoe.
It is vastly used in the beauty industry in skin care products as it is considered to be superior as a barrier cream. Again, my own preference is with products from the hive.
Many cheese makers still prefer a coating of bees wax in favour of plastic because it does not interrupt the flavour of the cheese.
It is even used to make crayons (remember them?)
And the obvious because we all use them at some point is the wax candle which burns with little smoke and less dripping.
I love this one……. Beeswax is used for making mouthpieces for the didgeridoo!
It is still used by some to make jewellery moulds.
This list is by no means exhaustive!
Take a look at some photographs in my Honey Magazine to see how you could use beeswax.
Who First Used Bees Wax?
I don’t think anyone will be able to answer that question in all honesty but we do know that the ancient Egyptians used it when building ships and preserving mummies.
The ancient Romans wrote messages on tablets coated with beeswax which could then be rubbed off after being read.
Whoever did make the discovery of beeswax uses could not in a million years have foreseen the trend that he or she was setting!
If you want to melt bee wax please be careful, this can become very hot! The best method I have found is to place in a heat-proof glass container which is standing in a saucepan of very hot simmering water.
Why not write to me and tell me what you use yours for, I'd love to know.
