Subject: Unusual uses for beeswax?

From: [email-masked] (Andy Nachbaur)
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 1994 02:23:00 GMT

<quotes>
From: [email-masked] (Adam Finkelstein)
Newsgroups: sci.agriculture.beekeeping
Date: 6 Dec 1994 19:56:13 GMT

From: "F. HENRY" <[email-masked]>
Subject:      Any unusual uses for beeswax?

I am interested in hearing about unusual uses for beeswax, such as the
following two cases from my own experience:

Falconer Henry,
Capital Region Beekeepers Association, Victoria, B.C., Canada

<end quotes>

1>   Well I don't know how unusual it is, but I have been called on for
crude yellow bees wax a few times from our friendly family mortician.
He told me he uses it as one ingredient in a secret old family formula
for making cosmetic wax used in preparings people who may need a little
reconstruction after death for open casket funeral rites. My honey house
is conveniently a few hundred yards away from his place of work, the
local funeral home.

But have never had a problem with bees bringing their wax back as by law
the casket is sealed prior to bringing it outside, and with the cheep
plastic flowers replacing the real thing at the cemetery across the
street there is little need for my bees to do much more there then pass
by reverently.

2>   Beeswax has also been used here abouts in a formula for tree
grafting wax. Again if the formula does not contain some honey bee
repellent it will be stolen back very fast the first hot day and the
graft can be lost.

3>   A mixture of Beeswax and asphalt was once very useful in the
coastal areas that used red wood irrigation troughs in contoured
strawberry beds. The bees did not en grace themselves with strawberry
growers for many years after the first year as within one season ALL
the tar and wax was removed by the bees in the area.

The beehives themselves were a nasty mess also with this black bee glue
that really made a mess of beekeepers hands and gloves. It took
several years and the realization that bees were contributing to the
productiveness of the strawberry crop before growers were willing to
forget and forgive. Today bees are protected in the same area and in
some cases that have a lack of local bees, money is paid to beekeepers
to pollinate strawberry, but not as a rule as beekeepers are in the
area for the winter and spring build up from other plants such as the
blue gum trees.

Hope this is what you were looking for and I am sure as I will think
of other moments of glory with bees wax, others will have bigger and
better tails to tell.
                           ttul Andy-