Yellow beeswax.

[Tom Bick]

New wax / cappings render the best . The colour is influenced by the pollens from the plants being worked .
Dandelion produces a beautiful buttercup yellow wax! I'm not sure how this works as the wax scales produced are translucent white ! Maybe when foragers are on a particular crop the pollen gets mixed in as the workers manipulate / condition the wax into a useable consistency ?



VM

I agree capping wax is the best wax also I find the scrapings from bits of brace comb make for a nice block of wax at the end of the year.

The comb that my bees build is almost white at times sometimes pale yellow and very much translucent but would expect hives of foundation to have the colour of comb heavily influenced by the colour of foundation.

Lovely candle by the way and I have a mould and wick sitting in the cupboard and each year I intend to use it but it sits in the cupboard all neglected.

 

[Finman]

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dandelion dyes wax orange, but the amount of wax, what bees produce during dandelion blooming, is really small.

I wonder if you have afford to select the wax according its quality.

When foundations are done, white pure wax produces fragile foundations. That is why it is better to mix old wax too into foundations.

And bee wax is too expencive to burn. 7 kg honey in one wax kilo.

.

 

[Karol]

I suppose its the level of contamination and how pure the wax has to be but may just rule out any wax containing foundation.

The potential for contaminants is high; from mould spores to bacteria to oxalic acid, thymol and environmental pesticides. Bearing in mind that it will be used in creams that are applied to wounds then it's important to use good quality material.

 

[VEG]

There must be mould spores in most bees wax though


Craig

 

[Hivemaker.]

The potential for contaminants is high; from mould spores to bacteria to oxalic acid, thymol and environmental pesticides.

I agree, as research has shown there to have been many pesticide residues found in beeswax, several of them added by beekeepers, unlikely to be much of a problem with oxalic though.

 

[Finman]

The potential for contaminants is high; from mould spores to bacteria to oxalic acid, thymol and environmental pesticides. Bearing in mind that it will be used in creams that are applied to wounds then it's important to use good quality material.

Now its is coming "information" which has no real or "known" backround.

Who put bee wax into his wounds? In what form?

When we used fat soluble apistan/pyrethroids and coumafoss to mites, it accumulated clearly into wax. That was a concern. But they are not used much any more.

Accumulation of oxalic acid tells, that the writer has no basic knowledge about the issue. Where is a reseach that thymol accumulates into wax. It has been used in hives at least 50 years.

Bacteria spores....yes. Living honey in the hive has over 100 different microbia.
Bees clean their combs, which often have mold after winter.

Bees suck dirty water as drinking water, which are like microbia soup. A farmer told to be that my bees are sucking juice from his manure container. There they are like a hat on container wall.

I have not seen reseaches where that syn list is a problem in foundations.

It has been founded too that even if wax are melted from AFB sick hives, it does not spread this way to bee hives.

 

[Hivemaker.]

....

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Who put bee wax into his wounds? In what form?

will be used in creams that are applied to wounds

 

[Finman]

.
Pest Manag Sci. 2007 Nov;63(11):1100-6.

Pesticide residues in beeswax samples collected from honey bee colonies (Apis mellifera L.) in France.

Chauzat MP, Faucon JP.


Source

AFSSA, Les Templiers, 105 Route des Chappes, BP 111- F-06 902, Sophia-Antipolis Cedex, France. [email protected]

Abstract

In 2002 a field survey was initiated in French apiaries in order to monitor the health of honey bee colonies (Apis mellifera L.). Studied apiaries were evenly distributed across five sites located in continental France. Beeswax samples were collected once a year over 2 years from a total of 125 honey bee colonies. Multiresidue analyses were performed on these samples in order to identify residues of 16 insecticides and acaricides and two fungicides. Residues of 14 of the searched-for compounds were found in samples. Tau-fluvalinate, coumaphos and endosulfan residues were the most frequently occurring residues (61.9, 52.2 and 23.4% of samples respectively). Coumaphos was found in the highest average quantities (792.6 microg kg(-1)). Residues of cypermethrin, lindane and deltamethrin were found in 21.9, 4.3 and 2.4% of samples respectively. Statistical tests showed no difference between years of sampling, with the exception of the frequency of pyrethroid residues. Beeswax contamination was the result of both in-hive acaricide treatments and, to a much lesser extent, environmental pollution.

 

[Finman]

....

"Creams" says anothing what it that stuff.

"Beeswax is a byproduct of honey production. It makes wonderful lip balms, hand lotions, hand creams, moisturizers, in cosmetics, wood finishes, waxes, leather polishes; waterproofing products, and dental molds.
It is impervious to water and unaffected by mildew. It has a melting point of 143 to 148 degrees F. and should only be heated using a double boiler as it is flammable when subjected to fire and flames. It is pliable at 100 degrees F. "

Let all flowers to bloom. ....

 

[Hivemaker.]

.
In 2002 a field survey was initiated [/COLOR]

That is old research, unusual for you to use old stuff like that.

 

[Finman]

That is old research.

That I exactly mean. In those days accumulation of fat soluble chemicals were a real concern, but not the same sences are used with oxalic.
Oxalic does not accumulate into wax.

After that 2002 other mite treatmenst have been used.

Guys can find many stuffs from wax, but it is difficult to say what does it mean.

in USA they have found what ever from combs.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Guys can find many stuffs from wax, but it is difficult to say what does it mean.

It means it is unlikely to be of use as a suitable medical grade beeswax, which is what this thread is about.

 

[Finman]

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All kind of business around bee wax:
http://www.healthdeep.com/industrial-grade-beeswax_0_40/

Foundation 70% beewax? What else? Bees do not like about wax mixtures.

Foundation machines...

electrical scooter-500W everything in sale

 

[Hivemaker.]

.
Foundation 70% beewax? What else?
Foundation machines...

Exactly, i am going back to making all my own foundation, at least i will know where the wax is from.

 

[pargyle]

Exactly, i am going back to making all my own foundation, at least i will know where the wax is from.

Well... that's something I would agree with this morning ... nothing compares with the lovely white fresh looking wax comb I got from my foundationless frames this year ... I was looking at some of the dingy brown foundation sheets available at one of the beekeeping suppliers earlier this year and wondering just how much crap there was in there as well as beeswax ?

Not exactly the finest start for any bees to work with IMO .... better off with either your own wax or just a starter strip and let them do their own thing !

 

[Finman]

Well... that's something I would agree with this morning ... nothing compares with the lovely white fresh looking wax comb I got from my foundationless frames this year ... I was looking at some of the dingy brown foundation sheets available at one of the beekeeping suppliers earlier this year and wondering just how much crap there was in there as well as beeswax ?

!

Nothing wrong in colors. They are natural boath.
Bees prefer to work with brown wax: laying, storing pollen and honey.

"brown foundation sheets available" ....colored is better because white new wax foundations are fragile to handle.

New comb are sometimes brownish because bees sometimes move old wax to new combs. Sometimes they are blue wheen bees move polystyrene insulation boad dye to the wax. In chimneys wax is grey.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I was looking at some of the dingy brown foundation sheets available at one of the beekeeping suppliers earlier this year and wondering just how much crap there was in there as well as beeswax ?

The quality of commercially produced foundation seems to vary every season, some i have had in the past has been rubbish.

Used to make all my own many moons ago, using former and leaf presses, never any problem with the quality of that, but became to slow a method, so now going to use the embossed roller method.

 

[Finman]

The quality of commercially produced foundation seems to vary every season, some i have had in the past has been rubbish.

.

Our biggest professional beekeeper showed to me foundations a year ago. If you touch them, they went broken. Something else was mixed into bee wax in foundation factory.
Beautyfully light color...

.

 

[mbc]

IMHO if you're making your own foundation its better to use wax with a bit of colour in it, or if you only have butter yellow cappings wax add a little propolis to it. The finished product seems to have a better texture for the bees to work on.

 

[Finman]

I have not seen much problems with working foundations.
I never fresh them up with heat even if they are years old and has grey colored surface.

I cannot see any idea in "natural combs". They are expencive and bees tend to make too much drones.

When you give foundations during flow, bees draw them in couple of days.
If they are no need to make new combs, they let them be. It is their habit to save energy and food stores.

Enjoy natural combs???--- Yes..when I have not enough frames and I think that I come later to add missing frames...or I put a medium frame into langstroth box. Enjoy about what? I have seen natural combs enough and I know that bees can do combs without foundations. I really do.

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