I have some beeswax from harvesting honey (I scraped the honey and wax off the frame when I harvested; and yes, I know that is a waste since the bees used a lot of resources to make the wax). So if I put the wax in the hive will they re-melt it or reshape it or something?
Lizzie
No, the bees tend to ignore wax. They do make use of some propolis, but you would do better to melt your leftover wax and save it.
Actually if you put the wax in the hive in small enough pieces, the bees will use the wax especially for cappings. Bees do move wax around within the hive.
Jim
As Jim mentioned on a very small scale they use some.... but I do not think to the extent you are talking about. When you enter a hive before bees have wax building abilities and you know you see some areas of drawn wax that was not there before and it is darker than fresh wax it is most likely moved wax. If you are a keeper that runs wax foundation you can find out by adding the foundation frames late after the bees can not draw it. They will cut the foundation, to shreds, chew holes in it moving it for use on a small scale....
The will move wax from comb in the hive. I've never seen them use cappings. They haul them out for trash.
Quote from: Michael Bush on August 27, 2018, 10:36:00 AM
The will move wax from comb in the hive. I've never seen them use cappings. They haul them out for trash.
Yep... what I meant... wax moved from old comb or cut off foundation.... not added wax cappings etc...
This is entirely a hypothetical and unlikely to be practical, but...
I've wondered if we could somehow shave/flakes bees wax into flakes small enough to mimic the flakes of wax the bees produce on their bodies and then perhaps mix with sugar water I wonder if you could turbo charge the drawing out of frames by providing the raw materials.
Take a look on the bottom board during wax making and you will find thousands of these flakes on the bottom board...
I once did an experiment where I put all the loose capping from honey extraction, honey and all on a small piece of food wrap on
the top bars. The bees took every single drop of honey out and reshape the capping in to imperfect honey comb. This comb you
can harvest for your own use since it is still on the food wrap. Now I know what to do with my capping.
I was watching bees on some moth eaten super comb I left out in the sun and there were bees on it nibbling and they were putting it on their back legs where they put their pollen normally. It seemed they were just using certain bits but we're definitely reusing portions. For what I don't know but it is spring here and they are drawing comb. They were also collecting propolis off the frame.
I often see them gathering propolis or the wax at the top of the comb where there is a lot of propolis mixed in.
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/GatheringPropolis.jpg
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/GatheringPropolis2.jpg
or the wax/rosin mix off my gloves when dipping boxes:
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/RosinWaxAsPropolis.jpg
Yes, they do reuse wax, kinda. Melt it down and paint it on new plastic frames.