Wax Cappings Value

One the left, wax cappings from extracting honey, this is the primo wax.

Wax Cappings Value

Most beekeepers know beeswax is more valuable than honey but then the question becomes, so how valuable IS the wax?

Some estimate it takes 8 lbs of honey to make 1 pound of wax. If you factor in how far bees have to travel and how many flowers they have to visit to make a pound of honey - two million flowers per pound - the value keeps going up.

This year, I kept my saved wax in a container so that when it was full, I boiled it down into a solid block of wax. It still amazes me how little actual wax there was on frames once all of the extra additives were removed.

Someone did the same thing and brought their results to the Missouri State Beekeepers Association fall conference in Springfield, Missouri. The examples showed a couple of things: first, the difference between plain wax and the wax from the wax caps that keep honey stored.

Secondly, there was a price associated with each. Not surprisingly, the wax cappings were more valuable than regular wax:

These are the prices for wax at Missouri State Beekeepers Association Oct. 27-28, 2017.

Wax from cappings, on left, I'm told is the wax saved and used for lip balms and other cosmetics as well as premier candlers.

The wax on the right would be wax that could be melted and used to resurface plastic foundation.

Charlotte

Say "Beeswax"

One warm fall day I was taking garden pictures while feeding my honeybees sugar water. When I got back  to wipe off excess "bee juice" where my fingers smeared the camera, bees had beat me to it.

My honeybees are a mix of Minnesota Hygienic Italians and Carniolans, bred locally to be disease-resistant, easy to handle and high honey producers. Some have solid black lower bodies; others like these two have a striped lower section and an upper thorax that appears to be fur covered.

I left bees cleaning up the camera. It took them about half an hour to remove every remaining drop of sugar water.

Charlotte

Making Bees Wax

Older bees make the wax that houses new bees and honey.
Bees eat about 8 pounds of honey to produce 1 pound of beeswax.
Settlers brought honeybees with them to the new colonies in 1622 as an inexpensive sweetener, to make candles and to use beeswax as insulation between log cabin cracks.

Welcome to Home Sweet Bees

When I started keeping honeybees in 2010, I had no intention of falling in love. Bees, I thought, would be fun to add to the garden to help plant pollination.

I now teach and lecture on beginning beekkeeping and started a bee club to help beekeepers share and learn from each other.

I’m also developing my own lines of honey and bee-related products, not to mention being hooked on my own homemade whipped honey.

Have you tried it yet?

Charlotte