01/10/2026
Hello there Folks, we are currently renovating one of our bedrooms that still has original oak fireplace and doors and to treat the wood I have mixed up some beeswax polish. With that on my mind I thought we’d take a closer look at beeswax.
Around eight days after emerging from their cells the female worker bees’ wax glands develop, there are eight glands which are located on the underside of her abdomen in pairs.
They reach their peak production between twelve and eighteen days old before they decline again.
Once the worker bee reaches eighteen days old, she will take up the job of guard bee, before leaving the hive as a forager for which wax is not needed so the glands shrink. However, if needed they can be reactivated but will never be as prolific as a young bee.
During the wax producing period her main job within the hive is that of builder, taking the freshly secreted wax and chewing to form the impressive honeycomb structure we are familiar with.
(Fun fact: The cells in the comb slope slightly down to prevent honey running out!)
To produce the wax, she needs to consume a vast amount of honey, as with all things data varies on this, but a good average is 7 kilos of honey to produce 1 kilo of wax!
With that piece of knowledge, it is no surprise that the bees will also re use wax from within the hive. This can be the wax caps that have been chewed off as the new bees emerge, reuse of the larger drone cells and indeed the queen cells. Or a bit like me, just a bit of a move around. It is quite surprising how the surface of a frame can change between each hive inspection.
This reuse of the wax introduces particles of pollen giving the wax it’s more familiar yellow colouring, and with more time it will eventually turn black and need to be replaced. The black ‘wax’ contains all sorts of substances including dirt and dead bee parts. If you try to melt this, you get very little wax, and the structure will remain as a paper-like substance.
Knowing how much effort goes into producing the wax, it makes sense that we try to conserve as much of it as possibly during harvest to give back to the bees. To do this we cut or scrap off the wax capping’s and put the frames into a spinner, using centrifugal force to remove the honey. Then the empty frames are given back to the bees to clean before being reused or stored for the following spring.
The only wax I keep is from the removed caps, this first is melted in a bain-marie and left to set to separate the remaining honey. Then melted again and filtered to remove any unwanted debris.
It can then be used to make many things, such as candles, food wraps, polish and lip balms.
If you fancy having a go at making your own polish here the recipe I have used for this soft polish.
I part linseed oil
1 part turpentine
1 part beeswax
Place the linseed oil and turpentine in a sealable jar, make sure there is room to add the wax.
In a bain-marie melt the wax and pour into the jar. Firmly close the lid and give it a really good shake. You need to this quite quickly otherwise the wax sets in lumps. Let it cool down and then it’s ready to use.
