Honey bees use the beeswax to build honeycomb cells in which their 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 . To produce their wax, bees must consume about eight times as much honey by mass. It is estimated that bees fly 150,000 miles, roughly six times around the earth, to yield one pound of beeswax (530,000 km/kg). When beekeepers extract the honey, they cut off the wax caps from each honeycomb cell with an uncapping knife or machine. Its color varies from nearly white to brownish, but most often a shade of yellow, depending on purity and the type of flowers gathered by the bees. Wax from the brood comb of the honey bee hive tends to be darker than wax from the honeycomb. 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.
An approximate chemical formula for beeswax is C15H31COOC30H61. Its main components are palmitate, palmitoleate, hydroxypalmitate and oleate esters of long-chain (30-32 carbons) aliphatic alcohols, with the ratio of triacontanyl palmitate CH3(CH2)29O-CO-(CH2)14CH3 to cerotic acid CH3(CH2)24COOH, the two principal components, being 6:1. Beeswax can be classified generally into European and Oriental types. The ratio of saponification value is lower (3-5) for European beeswax, and higher (8-9) for Oriental types.
Beeswax has a high melting point range, of . If beeswax is heated above discoloration occurs. The flash point of beeswax is . Density at 15 °C is 0.958 to 0.970 g/cm³.
Although only about 10,000 tons are produced annually, a variety of niche uses exist:
Category:Bee products Category:Waxes Category:Biodegradable materials Category:Sewing equipment
ar:شمع العسل bn:মোম be:Пчаліны воск bs:Pčelinji vosak ca:Cera d'abella cs:Včelí vosk da:Bivoks de:Bienenwachs et:Mesilasvaha es:Cera estampada eo:Abelvakso fr:Cire d'abeille fy:Bijewaaks gl:Cera estampada ko:밀랍 hi:मधुमोम hr:Pčelinji vosak it:Cera d'api he:דונג דבורים rw:Igishashara lv:Bišu vasks hu:Méhviasz nl:Bijenwas ja:ミツロウ no:Bivoks pl:Wosk pszczeli ru:Пчелиный воск sq:Dylli simple:Beeswax sl:Čebelji vosek sr:Пчелињи восак sh:Pčelinji vosak fi:Mehiläisvaha sv:Bivax tl:Mantika de papel th:ขี้ผึ้ง tr:Balmumu zh:蜂蜡This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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