Did you know that beeswax doesn't come from bees, but is mined in underground caverns like coal?

Question

The most common place for mining the wax is in northern New Jersey, but it is also bountiful in western Canada. Right this minute, there are about 97,000 miners mining for beeswax in North America alone. Currently Sony Electronics owns the rights to 90% of the beeswax mines on the Western Hemisphere.

Factoid: In the early 1800's beeswax was first discovered in an abondoned coal mine in north west Japan. The man who discovered it managed to obtain 17 tons of the wax, by mining it. When a friend of him ask to borrow some, his response was "Mine your own beeswax!" Of course the person was American, and misinterpretted the man for saying "Mind your own beeswax!" due to his Japanese accent, hence the expression.

Answer 1

What do you smoke??????
What pills do you get?????
Are you sure that the pills you get are not out of date?

Answer 2

An interesting theory, but it just isn't true. Beeswax does come from bees. It is the comb in which they store the honey. There are different kinds of wax and the type you are describing is a mineral wax like paraffin. One type, ozocerite, is a gold to brown in color and could be confused with beeswax. Some types are "mined." In addition to animal waxes (beeswax is the most common) and mineral waxes (paraffin) there are plant waxes such as those made from soy and petroleum waxes. One popular theory of "mind your beeswax" comes from a time when women in long skirts would stir melting pots of wax for candles and warn each other about it dripping on their clothing.

Answer 3

You are totally incorrect. This is not the 1st of April !!!!!
Quote from Britannica Concise Enyclopedia :-
Beeswax
" Commercially useful wax secreted by worker honeybees to make the cell walls of the honeycomb. A bee consumes an estimated 6-10 lbs of honey for each pound of the wax it secretes in small flakes from glands on the underside of its abdomen. After honey removal, the comb is melted to produce the beeswax, which ranges from yellow to almost black. It is used in candles ( often for churches ), artificial flowers & fruit, modeling wax, and as an ingredient of furniture and floor waxes, leather dressings, waxed paper, lithographic inks, cosmetics and ointments.

Answer 4

now thats funny, they should call it "minewax"

next time some one asks me to borrow some beeswax i will tell him "mine your own beeswax" [emphasis on the n in mine]

thanks for the info its very interestiing

Answer 5

No. I had no idea and I've been using Burt's Bees for ever. I think you're full of shipoopie though because why wouldn't it be from bees?

Answer 6

True bee's wax DOES COME FROM BEES. It is the wax that the bees store the honey in.

Answer 7

Wot the fackin ell yeh tackin boot, by?!

Answer 8

if the wax did not originally come from bees then it is not beeswax.
This is utter nonesense.

Answer 9

No, I didn't know that... Now where does honey come from? Stalactites? ;)

Answer 10

thank you for that stunningly useless information. Was there a question in there