What exactly is Bee Wax?

Question

I use a chap-stick (burts bee's) and I want to know if bee's are harmed or how is the wax removed and what is it?

Answer 1

Beeswax is a product from a bee hive. Beeswax is secreted by honeybees of a certain age in the form of thin scales. The scales are produced by glands of 12 to 17 days old worker bees on the ventral (stomach) surface of the abdomen. Worker bees have eight wax-producing glands on the inner sides of the sternites (the ventral shield or plate of each segment of the body). Wax is produced from abdominal segments 4 to 7. The size of these wax glands depends on the age of the worker.

Answer 2

Beeswax is prepared by bees to store honey. The beekeeper removes a honey frame from the hive, separates the wax from the honey, and sells the products separately. Beeswax is used for a number of products.

Answer 3

1. The yellow to grayish-brown wax secreted by the honeybee for constructing honeycombs.

2. Commercial wax obtained by processing and purifying the crude wax of the honeybee and used in making candles, crayons, and polishes.
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/beeswax

Answer 4

secretions from bee glands.

ewwwww. but true.

Answer 5

i tink bee's wax are honeycombs or smth

Answer 6

I found two answers:

1. Beeswax is the major component of honeycomb. It is secreted in tiny flakes from the underside of the abdomens of worker bees, and moulded into honeycomb.
Beeswax is soft to brittle, with a specific gravity of about 0.95 and a melting point of over 60°C, and consists of at least 284 different compounds, mainly a variety of long-chain alkanes, acids, esters, polyesters and hydroxy esters. These include free cerotic acid (hexacosanoic acid, CH3(CH2)14COOH), the ester of cerotic acid and triacontanol (CH3(CH2)29OH), myricin (myricyl palmitate, CH3(CH2)14COO(CH2)12CH3), and hentriacontane, CH3(CH2)29CH3. Hentriacontane comprises 8-9% of beeswax, and its stability and impermeability to water contribute to the role it plays as a structural component. Although insoluble in water, beeswax can be dissolved in solvents such as carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, or warm ether. The exact composition of beeswax varies with location.

Beeswax is obtained, after removal of the honey, by melting the honeycomb, straining the wax to remove impurities, and pressing the residue to extract any remaining wax. The purified wax is then poured into moulds to solidify. Colour and quality are preserved by melting the wax in water, avoiding direct heat. The wax may also be bleached. Beeswax is used for candles (religious ordinances often specify its use for church ceremonial candles), for artificial fruit and flowers, and for modelling wax. It is also an ingredient in furniture and floor waxes, leather dressings, waxed paper, lithographic inks, cosmetics, and ointments.

2. Beeswax is a product from a bee hive. Beeswax is secreted by honeybees of a certain age in the form of thin scales. The scales are produced by glands of 12 to 17 days old worker bees on the ventral (stomach) surface of the abdomen. Worker bees have eight wax-producing glands on the inner sides of the sternites (the ventral shield or plate of each segment of the body). Wax is produced from abdominal segments 4 to 7. The size of these wax glands depends on the age of the worker.

Honeybees use the beeswax to build honey comb cells in which the young are raised and honey and pollen are stored. For the wax-making bees to secrete wax the ambient temperature in the hive has to be 33 to 36 °C (91 to 97 °F). Approximately eight pounds of honey is consumed by bees to produce one pound of beeswax (8 kg/kg). Estimates are that bees fly 150,000 miles to yield this one pound of beeswax (530,000 km/kg). When beekeepers go to extract the honey, they cut off the wax caps from each honeycomb cell. Its color varies from yellowish-white to brownish depending on purity and the type of flowers gathered by the bees. Wax from the brood comb of the honeybee hive tends to be darker than wax from the honey comb. Impurities accumulate more quickly in the brood comb. Due to the impurities, the wax has to be rendered before further use. The leftovers are called slumgum.

The wax may further be clarified by heating in water and may then be used for candles or as a lubricant for drawers and windows or as a wood polish. As with petroleum waxes it may be softened by dilution with vegetable oil to make it more workable at room temperature, whence it may be used to create sculpture and jewelry models for use in the lost wax casting process.

Triacontanylpalmitate is the main component of beeswax. Palmitic acid (C16:0) is esterified by a C30 chain, triacontanol (or melissyl alcohol). Dont forget that the word "wax" is derived from the old english "weax" for the honeycomb of the bee-hive. Thus, bee wax can be considered as the reference wax.

Another substance Beeswax is mostly made of is an ester called myricyl palmitate. Its formula is C15 H31 CO2 C30 H61. (The numbers are supposed to be subscripts). Myricil palmitate combined with myricil alcohol make a substance known as Myricin.

Here is a shortcut to Burt's Bees:

http://www.burtsbees.com/

Here are some recipes:

Moisturing Vitamin E Cream uses more wax than most. It is from Jeanne Rose's "Herbal Body Book."

4 oz. olive oil,
3 Tablespn beeswax,
2 oz. Orange water,
5000 units of vitamin E,
5 drops oil of Orange flower or Orange peel

Melt the oil and the wax in the top of an enamel or glass double boiler, remove from heat, add your Orange water, and stir thoroughly. (you can get Orange water in the grocery store, or at health food stores or gourmet places) Pierce 10 capsules of 500 units of vitamin E and squeeze the contents into the cream. Add your essential oil and stir continuously until cool. This cream is very moisturizing and emollient. It is nice for rough, dry, or chapped complexions and should help promote healthy looking skin.

Recipe #2:

6 oz. mineral oil (also called liquid paraffin)
2 oz. beeswax
8 oz distilled water
2 TSP borax (I don't know if that's teaspoon or tablespoon)

In a double boiler, heat oil and wax to 160 F. At the same time in
a sauce pan, heat the water to 160 F. When both reach this temperature, add the borax to the water, stir briefly until it's dissolved. Maintaining the temperature, pour the borax-water solution into the beeswax-oil solution while stirring briskly.
Turn heat off and continue stirring for at least 5 minutes.
When the mixture has cooled to 140 F, pour into containers and let cool.

Recipe #3:

1/4 cup beeswax
1/4 cup almond oil
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon pollen
1/4 cup petroleum jelly (e.g., Vaseline)
1/4 cup glycerin
2 tablespoons liquid lecithin

Melt the beeswax and petro jelly together in a double boiler.
Add the rest of the ingredients, heat and stir for 4-5 minutes
until smooth. Pour into containers and let cool. (Hardens as
it cools.)

Recipe addenda:

One can substitute other ingredients: use refined olive oil
instead of mineral oil or petro jelly; add lanolin (sheep body
oil, which makes a pretty good hand lotion all by itself); add
fragrant oils like lemon rind oil to make it smell nice.

I have not made any of these yet myself, but I have found that one
needs a few different bottles of hand lotion, of different
consistencies, to have smooth skin. The really hard, gooey materials like beeswax and lanolin are best as a moisture barrier when you work with your hands or get them wet a lot. The lighter, runnier materials like glycerin, olive oil, and mineral oil are best for
lightly coating dry hands to condition the skin.
Some of the best ingredients for this last purpose are unpronounceable chemicals found in commercial hand lotions.
But beeswax lotion in my opinion is one of the best for heavy-duty use.


IMPORTANT CAUTION:

Wax is flammable like crazy. You must be alert when heating it
so it doesn't catch fire. Use a double-boiler.

A double boiler is one pan set inside another one. The outer pan is filled with water. The inner pan holds the wax mixture. Heat the water in the outer pan to cook the stuff in the inside pan.
The bottom of the inside pan should not sit directly on
the bottom of the outside pan - there should be water between them. One person says he uses a "wax pan" set inside a frying pan.