Honey wax and how to make it

Beeswax is essential for bee colonies. This wax is used to make bees, in which baby bees are raised, pollen is collected, and extra honey is stored for the winter.

The bees collect nectar and pollen to make honey and feed the hive. They produce wax as they eat honey. Bees make wax by chewing wax with some other honey.

How to make beeswax

Worker bees, which live only 35 days in summer, have wax-secreting glands on their abdomen (pages 4 to 7 of the inner abdominal ring) and are very efficient at producing wax between the 10th and 16th days of life. But from the 18th day until the end of the life of these bees, their wax-secreting glands gradually decay.

Bees use about two and a half to three and a half kilograms of honey to produce about half a kilo of wax, which causes the wax-secreting glands to convert sugar into wax and expel it through small pores. Wax is seen as small sheets on the bee’s abdomen. Here the sheets are basically transparent and become white and opaque after chewing. It is in the chewing stage that salivary secretions are added to soften the wax, which also changes its color.