wax cappings

[newbee 101]

Are wax cappings always white? I have some older comb and the wax cappings on the honey are tan to almost light brown, is this normal? Here is a picture link.... http://www.acmepainting.com/deep2.jpg

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"To bee or not to bee, that is the question"

[Curry]

New wax is always white. However, bees often reuse wax, and that's the tan looking wax. Wax gets discolored from propolis, pollen, bee cocoons, or whatever else comes in contact with it.

I MAKE my bees reuse wax... I scrape honey from my plastic frames and put the wax in a mixer. After it's ground up good, I paste it back on the frames and the bees make a fully drawn-out frame out of it.

[Scotty]

Well, that's also brood comb...so it's not white to begin with. The white wax cappings come from the honey supers.

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-Scotty

Weekly progress of my hive(s): http://bees.total-x.org

[beebarf]

also, the longer it sits there the darker it gets from them walking over it with their grubby little feet.

[Robert Brenchley]

The colour of cappings is more to do with what's behind them than the colour of the wax itself. Some strains leave an air space at the top of the cell, and this produces a 'white' appearance. Others fill it right up, so the honey is in contact with the capping. These have a brownish 'water' appearance which isn't so attractive for comb honey.