Benefits Of Beeswax - 1

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Beeswax is a unique product produced by the bee family

Beeswax is one of the staple foods produced by the bee, Nature's greatest worker. It is rightfully considered the second most important beekeeping product after honey.

These insects build honeycombs from wax - the basis of their nest, with which their whole life is closely connected. This is the cradle of the nascent offspring, the place of labor, rest and wintering of the entire population of the hive. It is also a storehouse of honey stocks.

The bee produces wax (in a liquid state) from honey, pollen and bee pollen inside special glands located in the lower abdomen. In a born bee, these glands begin to form at the age of 3-5 days, and at the first stage of development they are very weak. On the 14-18th day of life, they reach their maximum size. The wax liquid is squeezed out (seeps) through the smallest holes of wax "mirrors" outward and solidifies in the form of 8 thinnest scales with a total weight of about 1.5 mg (the mass of one scale ranges from 0.18 to 0.25 mg).

Experts have calculated that for the production of 1 kilogram of wax, bees need to produce (depending on the weight of the wax scale) from 1 to 4 million of such scales, while in one season the beekeeper usually receives up to 1.2 kg of wax from the hive. And with an abundant supply of fresh raw materials, a powerful family can give up to 7 kilograms! In such a family, bees are capable of producing more than a million wax plates per day.

One bee cell uses 13 mg of wax (50 plates), and per drone cell, 30 mg of wax (120 plates). Each honeycomb consists of two rows of hexagonal wax cells, which have a common partition that serves as the bottom of these cells. Weighing only 150 g, this honeycomb has 9100 hexagonal cells containing up to 4 kg of honey. Each face of a honeycomb cell turns out to be common for adjacent cells.

In old bees, the wax glands gradually degenerate and the wax production decreases, and later stops. Scientists have found that with a shortage of young bees in the hive, atrophied glands in old bees are still able to regenerate and produce wax, but relatively little. In the autumn brood of young bees, very weakly developed wax glands or their absence are noted, but since spring they are fully restored or formed, actively releasing wax. Autumn bees with well-developed glands in the spring of next year pass into the category of "old", ceasing to produce wax. As a rule, in such bees, after the transformation from "wax-forming" to "flying" ("honey"), their wax glands cease to function.

To stimulate and normal wax production, a protein component, for example, pollen, must be present in the feed, but in a strictly defined amount. Bees consume a lot of energy when building combs. They make up for its loss by feeding on honey and pollen. To make 1 kg of wax, a bee eats more than 3.5-3.6 kg of honey under normal conditions (in cold weather, this figure rises to 10 kg). The amount of wax produced by bees depends, first of all, on the quality of the feed: with an abundant supply of honey and pollen, the bee gives a much larger volume of wax. But if it is fed only with sugar syrup, the wax formation slows down noticeably.

If the uterus disappears in the family, then the release of wax (and hence the construction of honeycombs) stops. A similar phenomenon is also observed in a bee colony that prepares for swarming.

As soon as the young bees produce the first batch of wax and give it to the worker bees, they immediately start building the first honeycomb. They attach a small amount of sticky substance to the ceiling, into which the first plates of wax are transformed by prolonged chewing with strong jaws (mandibles) and moistening with secretions (saliva). Thanks to this enzyme complex, worker bees, kneading the wax, are able to dissolve it, therefore, the produced cells have no seams. For the construction of one honeycomb, bees spend about 140 g of wax. Newly built honeycombs are usually white with a slight creamy tint and contain about 100% wax, slightly earlier honeycombs (with a yellowish tinge) - 75% wax, and older (brown) ones - up to 60%.

Chemists have found that wax is a complex mixture containing up to 300 chemical components, which are divided into four groups according to their properties - esters, free acids, free alcohols and hydrocarbons. For a pleasant smell, very reminiscent of honey, and the color of the wax, are responsible for special odorous and coloring compounds. But experts believe that the main component of wax is esters, which are formed as a result of the interaction of fatty (carboxylic) acids and alcohols.

Scientists rank natural beeswax as a high-calorie compound: it contains resin, beta-carotene, minerals, pollen, vitamin A, propolis and other components. They calculated that wax contains almost 80 times more vitamin A than beef. Due to the presence of a significant amount of free acids, wax is capable of absorbing (and, therefore, containing) a large amount of such essential elements - the metals of the periodic table as iron, copper, zinc, chromium and others.

Still transparent forests

As if they are green in rest;

A bee for the field tribute

Flies from a wax cell.

A. S. Pushkin