Bee's Recycling Wax???

[Hill's Hivery]

Do bees recycle wax? I have some left over wax that I had filtered, but don't need it now. If I put it in front of or in the hive would the bees reuse it for making their foundation?

Just a thought. THought maybe it would save them some time and energy!

[Michael Bush]

I don't think they recycle any significant amount left out. They let cappings fall to the bottom board and don't recycle them either. But they do move wax around on ocassion in the hive.

[Tia]

I was going to ask this question because last fall I had some damaged frames that still had honey in them, so I left them in the garden for the bees to reclaim what they could use. They not only took the honey, but most of them were also cover with flakes of wax. It seemed like they were intentionally dusting themselves with it. Don't know what that was all about, but it sure was fascinating to watch them.

[Michael Bush]

Maybe they were collecting it. That's how they collect pollen. I put my cappings out all the time and they just steal the honey off of them and leave the wax. At least the majority of it. smile.gif

[Jim Fischer]

Of course bees "recycle" wax. When they really
get into a comb-building mood in fall they will
rip thin surplus (or even regular foundation) to
shreds to use as scavenged "building materials".

If you want to see where and how they use it,
simply buy some of the dyed wax sheets that
handicrafters roll into candles from one of
the bee supply houses, and toss it into a
hive in fall, when it is easier for the bees
to scavenge wax than make new wax.

[Michael Bush]

Yes they will. But have you seen then gather much from cappings left out? I haven't.

[Dick Allen]

>....have you seen then gather much from cappings left out?

Yes, they gather it up and dump it out of the hive on the ground. :D

I've also seen bees ruin sheets of new foundation for wax. Personally, I don't consider that to be recycling. Instead, I'd call it wax robbing. Also, those colored sheets, don't they contain a significant amount of parafin? Would the bees even use that stuff? Just asking, since I've never used them.

[Curry]

I use Pierco all plastic frames, and scrape my frames instead of using an extractor. After scrapping, I chop up the pieces of wax (using a mixer bowl) and paste the wax back on the frames. The wax has just enough honey in it so that the wax doesn't slide off the frame. DURING A HONEY FLOW, the bees will rebuild the frame using the chopped up wax. Notice that this only works during a flow... when the bees need wax to store honey. When there is no flow, they will mostly just remove it from the hive. This doesn't work on large chunks of burr comb or brood comb... only on pieces of wax that have been ground up using a fork (or mixer).

I've seen the bees draw out entire frames overnight this way. Some day I may try freezing wax scrappings from the fall, and putting them on frames in May during the flow. It's probably more work than just using an extractor... but it has it's advantages.

[Hill's Hivery]

Thanks for the info...I was just curious.

[Trevor Mansell]

I knew a guy who's father kept about 3000 hives down here in Florida. He told me he bought an old food grinder , or maybee a slicer with a abrasive blade on it or something. He froze the wax and would grind it into a fine dust, He said the bees would rob it like they were robbing honey. I have never seen it done but It might be worth looking into.