FACTS ABOUT WAX Part 1: Beeswax in apiculture

Dr Wolfgang Ritter

Dr Wolfgang Ritter is from BEES for the World, which supports African beekeepers to produce top quality beeswax and sell it on the European market while promoting the African way of beekeeping, most favourable for bees, beekeepers and the environment. The income from sales will be refunded to support African beekeeping communities via training provided by Bees for Development. We asked Dr Ritter to prepare an article for Bees for Development Journal from one previously published in a German magazine. This is the first of three parts.

Survey of knowledge

Beeswax used to be more valuable than honey. With the increasing importance of electricity and synthetic wax, beeswax lost its key role. Now that the focus is more on nature, beeswax has come back into the spotlight. Wax prices are steadily rising, because it is increasingly difficult to find low-residue wax or residue-free wax. This tempts some people to adulterate wax with additives reducing the quality of wax products as well as bee health. Within the European Union and beyond, there are calls to introduce quality standards similar to those defined in the Codex Alimentarius for honey.

Beeswax production by bees

Wax is produced in the abdominal glands of 12–18 day worker bees. As soon as the liquid wax emerges from their scales, it solidifies to form wax platelets. For 1 kg of wax, 150,000 bees have to produce more than one million platelets, and will consume 6 kg of honey. The wax of the different Apis mellifera races differs only slightly. So, wax from Africa is almost identical with wax from America or Europe. However, wax originating from the Asian honey bees Apis cerana, Apis dorsata and Apis florea is quite different (Ferber, 1977), and is rarely found on the market outside Asia.

Building cluster: comb construction requires a lot of communication and coordination between the individual building clusters. This represents an important action within the colony and is essential for bee vitality

Photo © Wolfgang Ritter

Bees secreting wax: the wax emerges from the bee’s abdominal glands and solidifies into small platelets

Photo © A Spürgin

Utilisation of beeswax

The components of beeswax can be divided into: 67% ester, 14% hydrocarbons, 12% free fatty acids, 6% flavours, natural colours and others, and 1% alcohols. Wax is mainly used to produce foundation for beekeeping purposes. It is used also in candle production, in pharmacueticals, and decorative and care cosmetics to produce beauty creams, ointments and pastes, as well as for food covers (for example for fruit) and as a separating agent.

Kinds of beeswax obtained in beekeeping

Freshly built combs are white and transparent, as long as neither brood was reared, nor pollen or honey stored in them. You can find this in nests built by wild bees or built as natural combs. The yellow colour in beeswax is produced by natural colours (carotenoids) in yellow pollen. With the bees crawling over them, the combs get darker and darker, even without any breeding activity. In the course of brood rearing, the cocoon spun by the pre-pupa and its faeces are left in the cell. With every new brood another cocoon is added. After just one brood cycle, the remnants accrued from breeding cover 30% of the comb. With every brood cycle the comb gets darker and less transparent. By melting out old combs the beekeeper recovers about 1 kg of wax per colony per year. In addition, beeswax can be collected from the cappings removed during honey harvest.

However, you can also let the honey drip from freshly built combs or you can squeeze the combs. Wax from these combs is the most valuable, apart from wax processed from cappings. Therefore it is much easier to produce good quality wax from top-bar hives and local-style hives (without frames) than in hives with moveable frames (socalled modern hives), because combs are used through several cycles in frame hives.

Combs with and without breeding activity:

Photos © Ute Schneider-Rittero

Wax of old combs (above) is less valuable than wax of freshly built combs (below)

Photos © Ute Schneider-Rittero

Ritter@beesfortheworld.de www.beesfortheworld.de