I was contacted by Thornes who were understandably interested in heading off this discussion. As pointed out above, it appears that the usual "standard" wax is indeed from China and I have used this often enough to know that it works well and doesn't seem to have any negative impact on the bees, and I am sure there are folk here who have had the same experience. The wax I was concerned about, the "premier" darker sheets that I got in exchange, they say is made from wax from the UK, Ireland and Africa: apparently the latter is from hives in areas where there is very little (if any) pesticide use or polluting industries. There was also an emphasis on how it's only heated gently. I'm happy to take them at their word, especially when it was pointed out that the bees love this wax. Being a parsimonious beekeeper (like everyone else) I'll use this wax and am interested in seeing how the bees respond. Thornes were too and asked to be informed about the success of this wax.
Just in comparison, I have seen Donegal Bees production of wax: it's heated to 150C during the cleaning process, and then pushed through the rollers to produce the wax. The heat doesn't appear to cause any problems with the wax and the bees are happy to work it and it smells gorgeous, although I hasten to point out that since I'm not a bee, that's probably irrelevant. So Thornes not heating the wax isn't really something I would consider particularly important.
So, as far as I'm concerned, this wax will be used in my Spring Demarees, and I'll know fairly soon how good it is in practice.
