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Beeswax candles - information and historyBeeswax is a product from a bee hive, specifically the hive of any species of honey bee (the genus Apis). Beeswax is secreted by young honey bees of a certain age in the form of thin scales. The scales are produced by glands of 12 to 17 days old worker bees on the ventral (stomach) surface of the abdomen. Worker bees have eight wax-producing glands on the inner sides of the sternites (the ventral shield or plate of each segment of the body). Wax is produced from abdominal segments 4 to 7. The size of these wax glands depends on the age of the worker. After daily flights begin, these glands gradually atrophy.Western honey bees use the beeswax to build honeycomb cells in which their young are raised and honey and pollen are stored. For the wax-making bees to secrete wax the ambient temperature in the hive has to be 33 to 36 °C (91 to 97 °F). To produce their wax, bees must consume about eight times as much honey by mass. Estimates are that bees fly 150,000 miles to yield one pound of beeswax (530,000 km/kg). When beekeepers extract the honey, they cut off the wax caps from each honeycomb cell with an uncapping knife or machine. Its color varies from nearly white to brownish, but most often a shade of yellow, depending on purity and the type of flowers gathered by the bees. Wax from the brood comb of the honey bee hive tends to be darker than wax from the honeycomb. Impurities accumulate more quickly in the brood comb. Due to the impurities, the wax has to be rendered before further use. The leftovers are called slumgum. The wax may further be clarified by heating in water and may then be used for candles or as a lubricant for drawers and windows or as a wood polish. As with petroleum waxes it may be softened by dilution with vegetable oil to make it more workable at room temperature, whence it may be used to create sculpture and jewelry models for use in the lost wax casting process. | ||
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STATS Candles 10087 W. Jeter Rd. Fayetteville, AR 72701 Located in NW Arkansas All rights reserved. Last updated January 27, 2007 Site map |