Other Bee Products: Beeswax

So, we all know that bees make honey, and honestly honey is good enough that they don’t even need to make anything else to be valuable members of our society. But they do so much more than just create anti-bacterial sugar.

Beeswax

We’ve all been told to mind our beeswax, and I’m sure you know that bees make wax. But do you know how? Bees have little glands on the bottom of their abdomen, where they “sweat” the wax out. You can see it with the naked eye, but I have never seen this in person. I have, however, seen many images on the internet about it, but for the sake of copyright and modesty, I will not be sharing them on this page.

Most of a bee’s home is made of beeswax. They make those perfect hexagons that they are famous for. In pitch-black darkness. Now you’ve all seen honeycomb patterns. But the frames have two sides, with hexagonal cells on each side. Did you know that all the cells tilt slightly up? A cross-section of a frame would look like a chevron, or like a “v.” The bees also make each side offset just a little bit too. If you look at a new sheet of wax or an empty cell you will see a little “Y” in the middle of the cell. This is because staggering the cells like this makes the honeycomb very strong. In fact, as a human, it’s hard to crush a built honeycomb. It’s not impossible because I am a lot bigger than bees, but it does give me enough resistance that I get the amazing opportunity to marvel at the ingenuity and engineering of these insects.

Beeswax has many modern and historical uses. I’m sure most of us know of the cosmetic uses for beeswax, like lip balm, salve, or moisturizer. Even as a beard and hair wax for styling. Beeswax is immensely important to the cosmetic industry, and collecting beeswax doesn’t put any more strain on the bees than collecting honey. Both of which are things that bees love to produce, and make in excess.

Beeswax has many uses outside of cosmetology, too. The largest section on its Wikipedia entry is all of its uses. (And, yes I’m using Wikipedia to double-check things, and help jog my memory since I haven’t given a proper bee talk since I left for college) According to Wikipedia, beeswax was the first plastic. Metal and glass workers use beeswax to help in casting molten metals and glass. Many wood and leather workers use beeswax as a finishing polish, as the beeswax is a natural waterproofing agent and lubricant for any moving wood parts. These last two properties are also why beeswax is such a popular product for seamstresses. It helps stop threads from tangling and becoming a nightmare while sewing larger projects, especially historically when a sewing machine wasn’t an option, but even now with hand sewing enthusiasts.

One last fun use of beeswax that I’m sure you’ve seen before. I know many people love to eat beeswax. It is perfectly edible, as its properties are very similar to plant waxes. I know many honey producers love to put a nice chunk of beeswax floating in their honey bottles to look organic and natural.