Wax is produced by young adult bees that are between twelve and seventeen days old. When wax is needed in the colony, they prepare themselves to secrete the wax by gorging either on nectar that has been stored in a cell in the colony or on sugar syrup that is provided by the beekeeper. They then rest for up to twenty-four hours while their bodies metabolize the wax, and then each bee approaches the comb and searches for a place that needs work. She has eight tiny slits on her abdomen, and tiny, moist scales of wax emerge from these openings, secreted by special glands that gradually atrophy when the bee gets older and begins foraging.
Using a rear leg with spiky tongs, she takes each flake one at a time, chews it in her mouth for a few minutes to soften it, and places it on the honeycomb cell. Then each added bit of wax is smoothed and polished, and she moves along to another spot that needs her attention. Beeswax is composed of fatty acids, alcohol, hydrocarbons, and other substances; it is white when the bees first secrete it, but it gradually yellows and darkens. In the brood area it can look brown to black because it incorporates pollen, oil, and propolis residue from the larval food, plus cocoons from the bee brood.
Depending on a variety of factors, such as the breed of bee, the quantity and quality of honey, and the stressors in the colony, anywhere from four to twelve pounds of honey must be eaten in order to produce one pound of beeswax, and that pound can create as many as thirty-five thousand cells. Another way to conceptualize this is that ten thousand bees can produce about one pound of beeswax in three days.
Over eight million pounds of beeswax are produced each year, mostly to be used as an ingredient in industrial lubricants, salves, ointments, furniture polish, ski wax, crayons, adhesives, inks, varnish, insulation, figurines, sculptures, and, of course, candles. When purified, beeswax has a high melting point (140 degrees Fahrenheit), which has an advantage over other waxes for applications in manufacturing.
Multiple cultures used beeswax to produce light or fire in the form of candles, torches, or lamps. Because of its flammability, beeswax was also a component in incendiary weapons during the Crusades of the Middle Ages and in other battles as well. Before plastic was invented, beeswax was the best method available for food storage, and it was used to seal wine casks and jars of olive oil. Cheeses, meats, and eggs were sealed or dipped in beeswax to preserve them, and wax is still used in packaging some of these foods.
The Egyptians used beeswax to create figures to be put in tombs and to make molds. Beeswax figurines thought to have magical properties were also made by Aborigines in Australia, who, like other tribal peoples in Central and South America, made these objects from the waxes within stingless bee nests. Beeswax effigies were used in Roman times for various rituals, including funerals, and wax models were created for the study of human anatomy throughout European cultures.
The "lost wax" process of metal casting for sculpture was developed in ancient times, and according to Eva Crane, the process was widely used at one time throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. It is still used today by some sculptors and in commercial applications. In the lost wax method, layered wax is used to retain the impression of an image and then the wax serves as a mold and is finally melted away, yielding a sculpture cast in bronze or another material.
Beeswax was also used in Egypt to embalm corpses, something bees do with propolis as well. Roman historians of the fifth century b.c.e. described wrapping deceased royalty in cloths dipped in wax. Bodies preserved in this way were carried in processions around the kingdom of the deceased so that their followers could pay their last respects.
The Romans used beeswax as a writing surface. Messages were sent on wooden writing tablets coated with beeswax throughout the Middle Ages in Europe. The message was written in the wax with a stylus, and it could easily be erased and the tablet could be reused to write a reply. The Greeks used beeswax for decorative painting, and they mixed it with pigment to surface walls. They also used it as a protective, water-resistant coating for boats, leather armor, and tents.
Beeswax is also an important component in the production of various dyed textiles and patterned metals or glass. Garments and decorative fabrics were marked with beeswax, which would then resist coloration by dyes or pigments. The wax-resist strategy is thought to have been initiated in India, and the techniques were passed along via the Silk Road traders.
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