AURO-The-Natural-Choice-for-daily-Life-04.2019

BEES, BLOSSOMS AND BEESWAX Beeswax is a wax produced by honeybees and used by them for building honeycombs. Already in old Egypt, the wax was used for technical but also for cultish or ritual purposes. It is hardly possible to imagine modern-day economy without beeswax. It is a versatile and sought-af- ter natural raw material used in healthcare, cosmetics, can- dle manufacturing, as coating or separating agent in the food industry, and much else. Of course the wax consump- tion is also very high in bee-keeping itself because it is the building material for the bees‘ own home. The hexagonal honeycombs with their honey fragrance remind the viewer of crystals. They serve as the place for birth, living, work- ing, and also as storage space for honey and pollen. Production The production takes place in springtime, from April through July, when there is an abundant supply of nectar. Several honeycombs can then be produced within one week. On a honeyfarm, the process of building honey- combs is accelerated by inserting prefabricated beeswax sheets of 1 mm thickness into the beehive. The original colour of the small wax plates the bees exude is near white. The yellow colouration takes place by uptake of an ingre- dient of the pollen of the blossoms, the pollen oil, that con- tains the natural colourant carotin. For the wax produc- tion, the bees hang next to each other to form clusters. From the wax glands at their hind ventral scales, they BEESWAX The bee house should be warm and protected. 24