How Do Bees Make Wax - Galway Beekeepers

• Bees
  • History of Bees
  • How do bees make wax
  • How do bees make honey
  • Honey
  • Diseases
    • Nosema Diseases
    • Colony Collaspe Disorder
    • American Chalk Brood
• Beekeeping
  • Beekeeping
  • Bee Sting
  • Swarms
  • Artificial Swarm
  • The Queen Bee
  • The Drone Bee
  • The Worker Bee
  • Top Bar Hive
  • Bees Life Cycle
  • FAQ
• Honey
  • Health
    • Beauty
    • Honey Herb Dressing
    • Honey for your Health
• Media
• Education
  • Education Programmes
    • Beginners
• About us
  • Enquiry
  • Contact Us
  • Association Apiary
  • Queen Rearing Group
    • Queen Rearing
• Membership
• OTHER BODIES
  • IBCB
  • NIHBS
  • IBA CLG
• Flora
• BnaG Honey Show 2019
• BnaG 2019 photos
• Spring 2020 beginner’s course

How do bees make wax

HomeHow do bees make wax

• History of Bees
• How do bees make wax
• How do bees make honey
• Honey
• Diseases
  • Nosema Diseases
  • Colony Collaspe Disorder
  • American Chalk Brood

How is Bee’s wax made?

When honey bees are between 12 and 20 days old, they develop a special wax-producing gland in the abdomen of their bodies. This special gland converts sugar from the honey into a waxy substance and deposits flakes of the substance on the abdomen.

These small flakes of wax are collected by the other bees and chewed in their mouths. The bees then add these pieces of wax to a wax foundation provided by the beekeeper as a starter to assist in the comb construction. In the wild, the bees start from scratch.

Beekeepers often use the expression that ‘the wax is drawn’ or ‘drawn out’, this means that the bees have used the flat foundation wax provided by the beekeeper and made it thicker – turning it into the well known hexagonal comb cells which are used for storing honey or egg laying.

The wax foundation can be used wired or unwired. Unwired wax foundation is mostly used by beekeepers who want to use cut comb (mostly used in the supers), and wired foundation is used to strengthen the wax to keep it secure within the frames. If the comb is full of honey it becomes very heavy and could fall out of the frames.

Bees keep the inside of the hive at a constant temperature which makes the wax easy to manipulate and the right consistency to allow the bees to build. If the hive gets too hot the wax drips and if it gets too cold it becomes brittle.

It has been estimated that it takes 2.72kg (6lb) of honey to make 0.45kg (1lb) of wax.

Copyright © Cornwall Honey

Discussion

• 0 Comments
• 1 Trackbacks

1. How Bees Make Wax! - Carolina Honeybees July 18, 2019

Copyright © 2018 Galway Beekeepers’ Association Designed by Padraig Murphy Passax Business Systems and Supplies Ltd www.passax.com

top

Galway Beekeepers’ Association is affiliated to the Irish Beekeepers Association CLG