Beeswax
Lexikon
Beeswax is the colony's building material and is exuded by the wax glands of young worker bees.
Beeswax is the colony's building material and is exuded by the wax glands of young worker bees. Chemically it is a mixture of more than three hundred substances. According to the Bavarian State Institute, about 70 to 72 percent consists of esters, 14 to 15 percent of fatty acids, about 12 percent of hydrocarbons and about one percent of free alcohols. Glycerol, typical of ordinary fats, is absent.
The melting point is around 62 to 64 degrees, and solidification begins at around 58 degrees. Wax is lighter than water and insoluble in water. The acids it contains attack iron and darken the wax, which is why vessels made of stainless steel, enamel or copper are used, and not those made of rusting iron.
Freshly exuded wax is colorless. It turns yellow only through pollen pigments, gland secretions and propolis components, and dark through repeated brood rearing. Wax from combs that were never used for brood is called virgin wax.
Wax is expensive to produce. The institutes cite as an order of magnitude that a multiple of that amount in honey is consumed for one kilogram of wax. For every thousand kilograms of honey harvested, about ten to twelve kilograms of cappings wax are produced. Because wax attracts fat, residues accumulate in it, above all from fat-soluble varroacides. This is the reason for the closed wax cycle and for regular comb replacement.