Beeswax 50g

Origin: Sangaste forest, Estonia

Beeswax is also used to make candles, cosmetics, grafting wax, shoe polish and various finishing waxes, among other things.

Traditionally, beeswax has been used to heal wounds and patch vessels. In medicine, wax is used, among other things, in ointments and medicinal candles.

Beeswax is a secretion from the wax glands of young worker bees. Wax is the material bees use to build honeycombs.

To produce a kilogram of beeswax, bees need to eat 7 kilograms of nectar.

The glands are located on the third, fourth, fifth and sixth abdominal lobes of the worker bees’ abdomens. Each look has two transparent foam caps. Beneath the wax granules are wax-secreting cells, which, as the bee grows, become spongy and fill with liquid wax. The wax penetrates through the chitin to the surface of the mirror glass and scales into a small plaque.

The bees start to secrete wax at 3-5 days of age and finish as forager bees at 18-20 days of age. Bees and guinea fowl do not have wax glands.

At room temperature, the wax is solid and hard, with a pleasant characteristic smell. The wax is whitish to dark brown in colour, depending on the content of impurities (honey, tar, suir). It is insoluble in water. Melting point of the wax is 60…65°C. The density of beeswax is about 960 ^kg/m3.

Wax contains about 80% carbon, 13% hydrogen and 7% oxygen. It takes 3.5 kg of honey to excrete 1 kg of wax in a family.

The symbol for beeswax as a food additive is E901.