Wax

[jah T]

HI everyone I just would like to know how many colonys would it take to produce a 1000lbs of wax?

[alpha6]

Lots. But the real question is going to be how much honey they can produce as most of your wax will come from cappings. So in trying to figure out how much they will produce you need to know what the average yield is in your area and then you can figure on the number of bees. Also, rendered wax is going to be much less once you remove the impurities and honey from the cappings. You may be better off working with other beeks and buy their cappings.

[sevenmmm]

I just read "The Modern Hive"chapter in the book, "BeeKeeping for Profit and Pleasure", and the author Webb claims it takes 800,000 bee foraging trips per pound of wax. I guess we need a mathematician to figure out how many bees, how much wax is available to be gathered, then how many hives...

[Allen Martens]

I produce 1 lb of rendered wax for every 150 - 200 lbs of honey.

[HONEYDEW]

All good answers, unless you are doing crush and strain then you would get to your desired weight quicker but at what cost ?

[beeware10]

with a uncapper I was always told 20# wax per 1000# of honey

[HONEYDEW]

with a uncapper I was always told 20# wax per 1000# of honey

unless the person that does the uncapping sets the flails to where only the midrib is left

[Michael Bush]

One hive. In about 1,000 years.

[beeware10]

my post should have said 10# per 1000# honey or 20# per ton. memory is not as good as it used to be. sorry