Products of the Hive

Beeswax

Young bees produce wax scales on their abdomen which other workers use to build honey comb. During its peak wax production phase, a healthy worker bee can produce about eight scales of wax in a 12 hour period. It takes about 1,000 wax scales to make a single gram of beeswax. New wax is initially glass-clear and colorless, turning yellow after being contaminated with pollen by the worker bees.

Beeswax consists mainly of fatty acids combined with alcohol. 200 other minor components have been identified in beeswax. Beeswax is a remarkably stable substance and remains solid through a wide temperature range. It’s melting point is 62 – 64 °C, above 85 °C discoloration occurs, the flash point is 204 °C.

Some Of The Many Uses For Nature’s Most Versatile Product

Use beeswax for hand crafted candles with a sweet scent that burn longer, cleaner, and brighter than regular candles.
Make your own beeswax food wraps (recipe and instructions available upon request) – Eco-friendly food wraps are reusable, biodegradable. They help the environment by keeping plastic out of the landfill and can keep your food fresh for longer. You can refresh your wraps as needed with more beeswax.
Make an endless variety of bath, skin and hair care products that moisturize, soften, protect and have healing and soothing properties. Make healing salves and homemade soaps. Tame flyaway hair for women and soften and style men’s beards and mustaches.
Make your own safe, non toxic children’s crayons – crayon molds available online!
Use small pieces as thread conditioner for both sewing and embroidery.
Use the wax for batik wax-resist fabric dyeing or mix with pigments to make encaustic paint.
Use beeswax for waterproofing any fabric and canvas shoes.
Make your own beeswax wood furniture polish (recipe and instructions available upon request). Beeswax also fills small cracks in wood.
Use it to polish and protect granite counter tops.
You can lubricate musical instrument strings and reeds with beeswax.
Make your own cutting board conditioner (recipe and instructions available upon request).
Make leather conditioner for any leather articles (recipe and instructions available upon request).
Beeswax is a moisture-repellent coating and finish for steel metalsmithing.
In the workshop – extend the life of drill bits and protect metal tools, Lubricate screws and nails to make them easier to screw in and less prone to wood splitting.
You can coat your garden tools to prevent rust in the summer and and use it on snow shovels to prevent the snow from sticking in the winter.
Use pure beeswax to lubricate the bow string wax for archery.
Beeswax is great for fixing sticky zippers and drawer slides around the house.
and so much more!