Читать книгу Honey For Dummies - Howland Blackiston - Страница 47

After honey, beeswax is the most commercially valuable and labor-intensive product made by honey bees. Beeswax is secreted by glands on the bottom of the female workers’ abdomens as tiny white flakes. Then they form it into hexagonal cells, creating a repeating pattern that becomes honeycomb. These beeswax cells are where the bees store their honey, pollen, propolis, and beebread. The beeswax cells also serve as the nest where the bees live and the queen will lay her eggs. An interesting fact is that while bees are constructing their honeycomb with beeswax, they can be seen linking themselves together by their feet, creating a single chain. There does not seem to be any explanation for this behavior. Some say they are re-creating scaffolding or they are simply using their own bodies to measure the size of each hexagon they build. Either way, we can all agree that honey bees are master builders and mathematicians.

Producing beeswax and building honeycomb are not only labor intensive for bees, but harvesting beeswax and honeycomb is also labor intensive for the beekeeper. Over time beeswax becomes visibly old, turning black and stinky from overuse by the bees. Beekeepers know it is time to swap it out and replace it with new frames of beeswax foundation for the bees to build new honeycomb.

Thrifty beekeepers harvest their beeswax and clean it by boiling it in water then straining out the excess honey and any residual particles a few times until the beeswax is clean and bright yellow again. This can take hours, mostly because of the time needed to boil and cool down the beeswax in between straining.

Beeswax can be used to make candles and mixed with oils, butters, and scents to make personal care products or even wood polish. Beeswax candles are highly desirable because they burn two to three times longer and cleaner than paraffin wax. Beeswax candles are also an ecologically safe choice for the environment because they do not emit toxic smoke or messy drips. It is said that the light from a burning beeswax candle is identical to sunlight.

When used as an ingredient in skin care or hair products, beeswax has a warm, nostalgic, honey scent. It is emollient, allowing oils and butters to absorb completely into the skin to moisturize, while offering antibacterial properties and a certain amount of protection from the sun.