Beeswax

Composition

Wax comprises a complicated mix of chemicals: monohydric alcohols and fatty acids constitute about 30% each. Fresh wax is usually white but can be tinged yellow by pollen pigments.

plates of wax being excreted

photo: Milan Wiecx

Wax production

Wax-secreting bees are usually 14 to 18 days old. They work at a comparatively high temperature (35 degrees C), making wax production easier for large colonies. Generating heat may cause the bees to huddle together so that when we displace a frame they form festoons like daisy chains. This may be a cause of festooning, no one knows; there are several other theories. Festooning is rare when using plastic frames. I’ve barely ever seen it.

To make wax, they gorge themselves with honey and require 5.5 kg of sugar (7 kg of honey) to create 1 kg of wax, so about 4 kg per box of frames. Comb production is inhibited in queenless colonies.

Wax secretion

The wax is secreted as a liquid in glands two on each side of the ventral exoskeleton, passed to the mirror plates and then on to the pockets from where it emerges as a white flake. The bees use their feet to move each scale to their mouth to chew it. The walls of new wax cells are 0.06 mm thick, so the wax scale has to be carefully positioned.

Processing wax

Put cappings in a rapid feeder to be cleaned by the bees. Then try this:

First Stage

  • Remove dirty-looking wax.

  • Put the wax in a honey solar extractor, angled at 35 degrees in Southern England, further North, dropping to 14 degrees (JD & BD Yates). If you make the extractor large enough, whole wooden frames can be rendered. The extractor uses the heat from the sun to melt the wax, which trickles through a grill (a bit of varroa mesh will do) into a bucket. Solar extractors are expensive to buy, but cheap to make if you can find a discarded doubled-glazed unit and have a few DIY skills.

Second stage

  • microwave the wax in a full to overflowing in a Pyrex jug for 6 minutes on full power, then repetitively blast and stir until it has all melted. It should be less than 90 degrees. Wax explodes/ignites at 200 degrees C.

  • Pour it into a disposable container, like a fresh soup supermarket container or milk carton.

  • When cooled, cut it open and use a knife to remove the crud from the bottom. For purer wax, repeat this process or pass it through a filter.

  • Soft water, like rainwater, should be used to stop the wax from forming an emulsion. I use hard water for small quantities, and yellow wax turns out okay.

Wax in old comb can be retrieved by mashing and then placing it in hot water. Once the wax has melted, skim off the layer of crud and place this in a stout sieve. Use pressure to force the wax out.

Honey