I often wondered how "THEY" ever figured out how many pounds of nectar/honey it took to make X amount of wax. Now in the "wax in the water trough" forum it is mentioned about the random dispersal of wax by the bees.
SO :?: How does one know how much honey is lost by bees making a pound of wax if the bees are going to make the wax anyways :?: :?: :?:
My mentor gave me this formula for converting nectar gathering to wax:
it takes 8 pounds of nectar to make 1 pound of honey and it takes 8 pounds of honey to make 1 pound of wax. If you us the US weights and measures of 16 oz to the pound (also 1 pint) then 8 pints to the gallon times 8 gallons equals 64 gallons of nectar to make 1 pound of wax.
OK. But my point is........... A colony of bees are going to be eating the honey/nectar even if they are not building comb. They are feeding the young and the queen. Surely the drones eat also.
So now you have these 30,000 bees doing all sorts of chores. House cleaning, food gathering, comb building, ect, ect. Even if you placed them in an enclosed environment and feed them from gallon jars. How would you know that eight pounds of honey made one pound of comb?
How many pounds of wax does it take to fill a frame? (deep)
Then if the bees are flying around dropping bits and pieces of wax all over the country side......
I just can't see how anyone can measure that.
I presume someone somewhere has worked out the various bits of the equation such as honey produced, nectar collected, size of stomach, load each flight etc. and by using these stastistics come up with the formular. It how that formular is used that causes the problems.
I believe stastistics can be used to prove anything. anyway.
To produce the wax the bee must be alive therfore consuming nectar (wax production is an involuntry act due to a full stomach). Is this a loss of the honey yield or necessary for the yield in the first place?
Several contributors contend that yield is lost and quote the formular when talking of wax production in the hive, my personal thought is it is time that is lost, leading to yield loss and not the actual production of wax. But as I say like stastitics, it can be read by others another way.
I have this sneeking idea that this "bee fact" has been handed down for many many years/generations and no one bothers to quetion it. If it has indeed been researched I figure someone some where knows where to find the study that has proven this and how the study was conducted.
This sort of blends in to that other question I had that faded and never was truely answered, as everything is connected. The question then was does it take those millions of flowers to make a teaspoon of honey :?: By the time you made all the wax, fed all the bees, covered all the miles, you soon run out of flowers.
Consider Jerrymac, each flower does not make only enough nectar for one visit from a bee, a moth, or a butterfly. If soil moisture meets the plants requirements, humidity is up, they produce nectar for varying amounts of time, giving up nectar to many visitors over many days. I'm not a botanist, but I would guess that a bloom keeps producing nectar until it is fertilized, or its viable period has expired. Dry winds, low humidity, or very high temps would all impact nectar production, as well as the type of plants and the amount of nectar it produces to lure pollinators in for a visit. It seems to me, the more hardy, and invasive species would produce more nectar as an evolved trait to aid in survival. Thats just a guess but it makes sense to me. So heavy producers like rapeseed or some types of clover would require fewer over all visits, but a similar amount of nectar. How big is a bee's honey stomach? How far from the hive is the source? What percentage of gathered nectar is water which must be dehydrated down to honey? Lots of variables which would lead to some general conclusions. Like 5 to 1 nectar to honey, 8 to 1 honey to wax. I'm sure someone somewhere has devoted alot of time to figureing all these things out. I'm lucky to find my way home each day, so it's all beyond me.
>>How many pounds of wax does it take to fill a frame? (deep)
One pound of newly made wax can fill an entire medium super. Weigh the foundation and double the weight--the foundation is actually three plys of wax compressed and impressed. Fresh wax is less dense so the weight of the wax to draw it out is about the same.
As the wax ages it gets heavier from such things as pollen and propolis being tracked all over it.