wax on
from fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz on 10 Oct 18:40
https://mander.xyz/post/39678051

#science_memes

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hypna@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 18:49 next collapse

How did it never occur to me to ask where bee’s wax comes from?

don@lemmy.ca on 10 Oct 19:01 next collapse

I mean, it’s right there in the name: beeswax, its own word.

villainy@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 19:11 next collapse

I don’t know what I was expecting exactly but it wasn’t little wax scales coming from their abdomen

MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca on 10 Oct 20:29 collapse

I always kind of hoped they pooped the wax out like spider’s silk.

Theoriginalthon@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 20:57 next collapse

I assumed it was like cream separating from milk, only wax from honey, but to be fair I have never really thought about it much

TachyonTele@piefed.social on 10 Oct 22:39 collapse

I thought they regurgitated it into the honey combs.

wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works on 11 Oct 15:41 collapse

They do, but in order for them to regurgitate, they first must gorge upon it. They eat it, chew it up and spit it out in the shapes necessary (planar, cylindrical, or otherwise).

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 03:52 collapse

I hoped they pooped it out their legs like Spiderman

trolololol@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 07:53 collapse

Well it’s not like it’s called beeswaxoutoftheiryuckysegmentedbody so we still have some room for imagination duh

SydBa@sh.itjust.works on 11 Oct 14:38 collapse

Bees bodies are beautiful.

avidamoeba@lemmy.ca on 10 Oct 19:55 next collapse

U & me both

ayyy@sh.itjust.works on 11 Oct 04:40 collapse

‘Cause it’s nunya

thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 07:46 collapse

What’s nutya?

icelimit@lemmy.ml on 11 Oct 13:51 collapse

Nunya beeswax

tidderuuf@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 18:59 next collapse

He should use Head & Shoulders, will clear that right up.

Seaguy05@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 19:09 next collapse

Hey man, let them live their lives. Mind your own bees wax… It’s not your wax, it’s the bees wax.

TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub on 10 Oct 19:13 collapse

Everyone should mind their beesness.

Zozano@aussie.zone on 10 Oct 22:55 next collapse

Back in my day, minding your own beesness was the bee’s knees!

Seaguy05@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 23:56 collapse

It was right there and it flew right by me.

don@lemmy.ca on 10 Oct 19:10 next collapse

What’ll really bake your noodle later on is the wax is made from honey.

Nindelofocho@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 21:46 next collapse

I never really thought about it but bees are fuckin weird

meekah@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 21:47 next collapse

I mean, the whole bee is, if you think about it

LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net on 10 Oct 22:12 next collapse

Mostly pollen actually. The honey is just the fuel.

TachyonTele@piefed.social on 10 Oct 22:40 next collapse

Whoa hey now, you’re not going to get me to think that easily

Jimbabwe@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 01:36 collapse

If you want to make a bee from scratch, you must first invent the universe

deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz on 11 Oct 03:04 next collapse

Calm down Sagan.

BanMe@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 03:59 collapse

It’s bees all the way down

mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 10 Oct 22:21 next collapse

Sort of like how the spit in your mouth, the tears in your eyes, the snot in your nose, etc is primarily made of filtered blood.

captainlezbian@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 01:43 next collapse

Evolution does not create from nothing, it repurposes and modifies what’s on hand.

Opisek@piefed.blahaj.zone on 11 Oct 06:31 collapse

I don’t know how I feel about this new revelation

blazeknave@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 23:27 collapse

👋😬

Hi. So… how do bees work? Eli5

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 03:54 collapse

First they go to the unembeeployment office to see where they’d benefit the hive

whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 10 Oct 19:13 next collapse

Weird bee teeth, tooth fairy origins?

Kernal64@sh.itjust.works on 10 Oct 19:30 next collapse

I don’t know why, but this grosses me out so much.

mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de on 10 Oct 19:38 next collapse

Yeah it looks really disgusting, like it’s shitting soft teeth

Winter_Oven@piefed.social on 10 Oct 20:57 next collapse

oi you didn’t need to put that image out there in the world

you could have just kept that to yourself

Kernal64@sh.itjust.works on 10 Oct 21:36 next collapse

Nobody needed to share that picture of bees making wax, either. 😩 We’ve all had our share of trauma from this post.

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 03:53 collapse

I don’t remember any bee wax secretion picture

toynbee@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 23:11 next collapse

It’s basically the same thought that occurred to me, so it wouldn’t have been contained.

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 03:53 collapse

CORN

dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 00:47 next collapse

What a terrible day to know how to read.

Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone on 11 Oct 03:44 collapse

Fuckin bee eczema 🤢

fossilesque@mander.xyz on 11 Oct 16:31 collapse

eczebeema

mr_satan@lemmy.zip on 11 Oct 07:11 next collapse

Fact check me, but isn’t honey just bee vomit? Like it’s a little bit digested nectar, no? So knowing that beeswas was is not spit or puke equivalent is less gross to me.

LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 07:29 next collapse

Me too, real “Thanks, I hate it”

BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk on 11 Oct 23:02 collapse

It’s setting my trypophobia off for sure.

tdawg@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 19:54 next collapse

Gross, but also neat

Geometrinen_Gepardi@sopuli.xyz on 10 Oct 20:35 next collapse

If you spread that stuff on wood or leather, it’ll last forever.

sobchak@programming.dev on 10 Oct 23:25 collapse

TIL beeswax is pretty cheap. I typically use shellac on stuff that is indoor and low wear, Looks like beeswax is cheaper and about as easy to apply.

YerbaYerba@lemmy.zip on 10 Oct 23:45 collapse

Fun fact: shellac is an insect product too

PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 11 Oct 15:35 collapse

Just out here rubbing bug goo on plant corpses, guess we’re weirder than the bees

jayambi@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 20:56 next collapse

how many burgers is one lb?

Opisek@piefed.blahaj.zone on 10 Oct 21:11 next collapse

Seven bald eagles and three units of freedom

meekah@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 21:46 next collapse

you do know what quarter pounder means right?

fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk on 10 Oct 22:44 next collapse

🇬🇧 - It means it costs 25 pence, or £0.25.

captainlezbian@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 01:40 collapse

'ow many shekels is that?

ivanafterall@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 12:28 collapse

I haven’t got a penny. Will a ha’penny do?

FiskFisk33@startrek.website on 10 Oct 23:00 next collapse

still depends on if they’re the same pound, there are a few to chose from

kungen@feddit.nu on 10 Oct 23:14 next collapse

You mean a Royale with Cheese?

AeonFelis@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 01:36 collapse

It means bigger than a third pounder, right?

mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca on 10 Oct 23:34 collapse

just one

horseloaf@piefed.zip on 10 Oct 21:15 next collapse

How many flakes in a scale?

ivanafterall@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 12:25 collapse

How about a morsel? A chunk?

RagingRobot@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 22:16 next collapse

It looks like one side of this bee is clogged

woodenghost@hexbear.net on 10 Oct 22:33 next collapse

Damn, I somehow thought, that they made it with their mouth or something. Now I can’t stop wondering what that feels like.

But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world on 10 Oct 22:35 next collapse

Gimme some honey and comb on vanilla ice cream

realitista@lemmus.org on 10 Oct 23:10 next collapse

Eww

ivanafterall@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 12:24 collapse

Yeeeeah. Blech. No offense, bees, but keep that shit private.

RedSnt@feddit.dk on 10 Oct 23:51 next collapse

Apparently a strong hive can have a colony of around 60,000 bees, so 500000/16 = 31250 bees, meaning it’s possible, albeit unlikely because not all bees work the same, but it is almost theoretically possible for a big colony to make 2 lbs a day then.

Assuming flakes and scales are the same thing as well.

user1234@lemmynsfw.com on 11 Oct 00:43 next collapse

I guess you can say it’s a small scale operation

dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 00:46 next collapse

I knew the bees had to be secreting wax somehow. But I always imagined it to be some kind of secondary oral process. Instead they really use… specialized pores under the segments in their thorax?

Now I don’t know which version grosses me out more.

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 03:52 next collapse

It’s not like you ain’t got glands

Canonical_Warlock@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 11 Oct 06:34 collapse

Ey gril, can I get a peak at them glands?

~I prefer adrenal by thyroid also works in a pinch.~

ook@discuss.tchncs.de on 11 Oct 04:56 next collapse

You know where the honey comes from?

Mist101@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 14:25 collapse

Easy, stored in the bee-balls, that’s why they’re called BBs.

tomenzgg@midwest.social on 11 Oct 05:27 collapse

Definitely the latter, for me; something about segmented holes just grosses the absolute Hell out of me.

deltapi@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 14:10 next collapse

I’ve got bad news for you about woolen fabrics…

tomenzgg@midwest.social on 11 Oct 15:35 collapse

Haha; I think the wool’s too fuzzy and not rigid enough to bother me. I’ve been trying to get more into the fiber arts in the last few years, too, so definitely not a problem that I’ve noticed.

Tonava@sopuli.xyz on 11 Oct 15:13 collapse

Trypophobia?

tomenzgg@midwest.social on 11 Oct 15:42 collapse

Almost definitely; I don’t know if there’s a degree that’s necessary to qualify as I can still look at it without breaking eye contact (though I hate it). But I have a deep desire to rip that shit up the entire time; deeply repulsive, whatever the reason. Honeycombs don’t bother me, though; I dunno.

visnudeva@lemmy.ml on 11 Oct 06:12 next collapse

Very hairy for a beeswax producer.

FauxPseudo@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 11:59 collapse

Any female bee in the hive will go through all the jobs available depending on their age. The bees you see flying around are at the end of the life cycle. Bees make wax from days 12 to 18. By the time they go foraging they are 21+ days old and no longer have the fuzziness of youth.

Johandea@feddit.nu on 11 Oct 06:49 next collapse

Wikipedia has some actually useful units regarding it’s production.

The new wax is initially clear as glass and colorless, becoming opaque after chewing and being introduced with pollen by the hive worker bees, becoming progressively yellower or browner by incorporation of pollen oils and propolis. The wax scales are about three millimetres across and 0.1 mm thick, and about 1100 are needed to make a gram of wax. Worker bees use the beeswax to build honeycomb cells. For the wax-making bees to secrete wax, the ambient temperature in the hive must be 33 to 36°C.

The book Beeswax Production, Harvesting, Processing and Products suggests one kilogram of beeswax is sufficient to store 22 kg of honey. Another study estimated that one kilogram of wax can store 24 to 30 kg of honey.

fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com on 11 Oct 10:16 next collapse

But is a flake the same as a scale? Bad explanation.

Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works on 11 Oct 12:06 next collapse

How many bee jackets to make a tube of all natural chap stick?

kazerniel@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 14:42 next collapse

I never thought about it, but beeswax is kinda disgusting, basically ass-grease :P

Dasus@lemmy.world on 11 Oct 19:52 collapse

And honey is more or less vomit if you want to think about like that.

Then again, if you do, remember that your cafe latte is also just boob fat and protein with some bean juice.

kazerniel@lemmy.world on 12 Oct 18:25 collapse

Yea, I’m vegan, so I’m mindful of milk and honey (and yes, they’re disgusting), just never really thought about what process wax exactly came from.

Dasus@lemmy.world on 12 Oct 18:43 collapse

You’ll probably hate this song then

Roxette - Milk And Toast And Honey

psud@aussie.zone on 13 Oct 03:57 collapse

They probably also hate that animal agriculture is required for permaculture. But they hate a lot, so the song is just a little bit

Sam_Bass@lemmy.world on 12 Oct 18:32 collapse

I always though they puked it up