Foraging wax. Waste not want not

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Are you sure you haven't taken a video of the slowest kid in the class?

You can imagine the conversation when she gets back to the hive.

'Look what I found!!' said Mary248663 excitedly, showing the wax she had foraged from the disc on the outdoor table.
'Wax. Really?' said Mary537116. 'Twenty minutes you've been out. Look, hang on...' closes her eyes and squeezes out four flakes of fresh wax, shaking them in front of Mary248663 'Don't. Do. That. Again.'
Mary 248663 slinks off to a quiet corner of the hive, sobbing silently to herself.
 
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She was the only one there
Perhaps the others know something.

Their are usually loads mopping up propolis when I’m scraping the boxes.

I’m trying an experiment
I melted up some over cooked wax and I’m leaving it out over winter to see if the weather lightens it

Stan said by spring the bees would have taken it all away
Somehow I think he might be wrong
 
Probably a bit of honey residue on bottom of cake.
 
Dani my family had some contact with a Dutch family and their first business was bleaching wax. they had large areas where they strung out what I can only describe as ribbons of bees wax to bleach. Forget over winter the summer is the bleaching time.

PH
 
Dani my family had some contact with a Dutch family and their first business was bleaching wax. they had large areas where they strung out what I can only describe as ribbons of bees wax to bleach. Forget over winter the summer is the bleaching time.

PH

Perhaps the local tanning studio if they have slack times on the sunbeds ?
 
Dani my family had some contact with a Dutch family and their first business was bleaching wax. they had large areas where they strung out what I can only describe as ribbons of bees wax to bleach. Forget over winter the summer is the bleaching time.

PH

Yes probably but winter will give them a head start
 
But the bee isn’t eating it! she’s stashing it in her pollen baskets - as Erica pointed out - to be re-used in the hive.

There was an article in ABJ a few years back about giving wax back to hives and how quickly it was taken up by the bees and reused.
Of course if it's American it can't be true...... :)
 
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