The Original Green Material

In this day and age when the government, industry and environmentalists are calling for “Green Products” – they seem to forget there was a time when all products were Green. That time was not that long ago. If you are 59 years old (as I am) or have access to grandparents or Great-grandparents ask them what they did to live.

My father said as a boy they used horse manure, cow manure and chicken litter as fertilizer and picked the bugs off of garden plants by hand and dropped them in a coffee can of kerosene to kill them. Do the words “Organic Gardening” come to mind? The reason for this was they did not have money for commercial products that did the same job.

Travel was either by horse or walking - one provided the fertilizer and the other the health benefits that saw most of my Great-grandparents live to reach over 90 years of age. Heat was from wood and it was they who cut, split, stored the wood and kept the fires burning. Meat came from farm raised animals fed by some of the same farm raised crops they ate. Soap you made from animal fat and lye from the wood ashes left over from the heating and cooking fires. Medicine for the most part came from the wild plants that grew around the home and their use was handed down by word of mouth. Sweeteners came from fruit, molasses and honey. Before electricity - Water came from a well or spring and light came from oil lamps and candles. Have you seen anything yet that would not qualify as a “Green Product”?

I wish to talk about “Green Products” you can still make and use today that will have the virtues of the products of my Great-grandparents day. You will control the factory that makes the products and its quality. The factory is called a honeybee hive. In my Great-grandparents day either a bee tree was found or a swarm of honeybees was captured and put in a nail keg (called a bee gum) or a home made wooden box to be the source of the hive products. Today there are wooden hives that allow for the products to be removed without destroying the hive or the bees.

The original method meant the bee tree was cut down at night (the days before smokers, bee suits and veils that cost money) or the bee box – nail keg open at night because honey bees will not fly after sunset unless it is to a light near the hive. (Usually they crawl at night in your shirt, pants etc. when you don’t pay attention) The part of the hive with the honeybee brood in it was reinstalled in a bee box – nail keg and the remaining bees and queen were eager to go into the container to save the brood. The comb with the honey was brushed free of bees and put in a big pan or pans to take back home where the process of storing the honey could be completed. You could get 20 to 100 pounds of honey depending on how long the hive was there and the physical size of the hive. (I have seen hives in the side of old houses without insulation in the walls - plenty of room for growth.) Back home the honeycomb was cut to fit (usually a gallon or half gallon wide mouth jar) and the liquid honey at the bottom of the pans poured over the cut comb and the jar closed - job finished. (After removing any unwanted items, dead bees etc.)

If you wished to make candles – you would hand crush the wax comb forcing out as much of the honey as possible and this was usually put in a strainer to drain and be collected in a pan. The resulting liquid honey would have pollen, some propolis and honey from the hive. This was saved in a jar or poured over the cut comb honey. After the wax had finished draining it would then be washed in warm water to remove the remaining honey from the wax that did not drain out. This honey water could be used for baking, a sweet drink or for wine making. (In those days nothing was wasted that required work to get) The wax was put in a pot of water and heat added until the wax melted and then lightly stirred to let any trash settle out or rise to the surface where it could be removed. Let the water cool and remove the block of wax. Any dirt or trash left on the bottom of the wax can be scraped off with a knife. This process could be repeated as often as felt necessary to make a better final product. You now have the wax for your Beeswax candles.

Molds and Cotton wick could be purchased for the candle making process. Or you could use a clean metal container about 10 to 12 inches tall filled with bees wax which was usually heated in a make shift double boiler to melt the wax. This is your dipping container. The wick would then be dipped in the dipping container as many times as necessary to get the desired thickness of the candle. As the wax was used up more was added until you either ran out of wax or make enough candles. If you had a mold you would center your wick in the mold and pour the melted wax into it until full. The mold with the bees wax was then allowed to cool and the wax harden. Then the candle could be pulled out of the mold. Did I forget to mention you would have to grease the inside of the mold to be able to pull the candle out? A little trial and error was always present.

Honeybee Wax could be used to make salves, furniture polish, chewing gum, water-proofing paper (like wax paper) and as a lubricant for sticky drawers. The wax had soothing properties for a sore throat and would help open a stuffy nose when chewed. A salve could be made using lard and beeswax. The herb of choice would be heated in the lard and after a suitable time drained through a cloth filter to remove the solids. This lard extract would then be heated with wax added and melted until (with testing) you got the finished product to the desired hardness. This honeybee wax cost nothing but the time it took to process it into a product you had a need for and you knew what was in it.

Honey was the sweetener brought to you by Mother Nature’s insect herbalist. Honey poured over fresh mint and left for 6 weeks gives you a honey flavored peppermint patty taste. Medicinal honey was made the same way with the herb of choice used instead of the mint (which is good for digestion). Just think – no doctors, no prescriptions, no drug companies and no FDA just the results you want and the cost is your time. Honey has been used as a medicine before the Romans even dreamed of creating medicine.

How To Create Your Own “Green Factory”

To create your own “Green Factory” you first do the research by finding a local honeybee club or Beekeeper to help you get started. Most if not all states have a State Apiarist. Find the phone number and he or she can get you in touch with a local club. Everyone there will be more than willing to help you with information. Talk to 10 different Beekeepers and you will get 10 different ways to do the same thing and most likely all 10 will be right. This is a job where what works for one may not work for another. The reasons are varied because of the location of the hives, the race of the honeybees and your thoughts on the subject.

The equipment needed can be made by you, purchased from bee companies like “The Walter T. Kelly Company” and “Dadant & Sons” or a complete hive and equipment purchased from a retiring beekeeper. A good reference to have is “The Hive and The Honeybee” from Dadant & Sons. You can also go real basic and create your own Kenya hive. These are all decisions to be made by the President of your “Green Factory”.

A solar wax melter is the easiest way to convert honeybee comb into solid beeswax blocks for making your candles. A Pierce Thermostat Knife is a good way to cut the cappings off of the honeycomb so you can use an extractor to spin the honey out of the comb. This way you can put the comb back into the hive, still have wax cappings for your candles and liquid honey for storage and use. Here again it is decision time for the President of your “Green Factory”. How Do You want to run your “Green Factory”? The decision is yours.

About Me

My Wife and I started our website at http://Jamersonscrafts.com where we sell handrolled beeswax candles and other crafts we make. I also have a blog at http://naturalbeekeeping.blogspot.com where I give a running account of how I started in natural bee keeping, the results good and bad, what I do and how I do it.

I hope I have given anyone who would like to do this a starting point. Where you take it – is your Green Decision.

Best Wishes & Good Luck

Paul Jamerson

Product Description
This definitive work by world-renowned bee authority Eva Crane offers a fascinating account of bees and their complex relations with both humans and animals. Comprehensive, absorbing, and lavishly illustrated, this scholarly, yet accessible volume explores how bees, honey and other bee products have been gathered and utilized throughout the world.

Beginning with the rock paintings of the Mesolithic cave dwellers, readers will learn about the variety of methods used by human beekeepers, the stratagems used by animal honey-hunters, and the multitude of products humans have derived from bees. The first in-depth book on the subject, the World History of Beekeeping and Honey-Hunting is the ultimate work on bees for scholars in biology and the life sciences, professional and amateur beekeepers, and anyone who is interested in bees or the collection of honey.

Where Has All The Honey Gone?

Louise Rossberg had nearly a thousand beehives in 2006. Today, she has 200.

In February 2005, John Miller lost almost half of his 13,000 hives, which translated into the loss of 300 million bees. Miller is an experience beekeeper. His great-grandfather began the family’s beekeeping enterprise in 1894. The West Coast of the United States is estimated to have lost 60 percent of its commercial honeybee population, while the East Coast has lost 70 percent. The devastating honeybee deaths are occurring worldwide. What is causing this “Colony Collapse Disorder?” Blame is put on mites or a “mysterious illness.” Let’s step back and take a second look.

Early rock paintings from around 7000 BC show people gathering honey from trees and rocks. Written history dating back 5,000 years mentions honey. Beekeepers were active during the Egyptian dynasties cultivating honey for use as a sweetener and as an additive to beer, a popular beverage among early Egyptians. After thousands of years, why are the honeybees dying in such large numbers when there have always been mites and “mysterious illnesses?” The German Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety contributes its mass death of honeybees to Bayer’s—the aspirin manufacturer—production of neonicotinoids under the trade names of Poncho and Gaucho. These pesticides, according to the German Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, are responsible for the significant loss of bees and other beneficial insects. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Poncho is highly toxic to honeybees. The pesticide is sprayed on cornfields and other crops. The wind carries the pesticide residue to other plants and flowers. While busy pollinating, the honeybees absorb the toxin into its system. Why aren’t these lethal toxins banned from our crops to protect our honeybees and us?

Bayer is the leader in the manufacture of pesticide and drug production. It has a history of successfully resisting evidence to the harm that its products are causing. One important example is Bayer’s Baytril. The FDA approved Baytril, a powerful fluoroquinolone antibiotic, for use in poultry. Doctors soon discovered fluoroquinolone-resistant strains of campylobacter, a serious diarrhea disease. The FDA traced the resistant strain to the use of Baytril in poultry. It took a five-year battle with the FDA before the Bayer Corporation stopped the distribution of Baytril for poultry. With an annual profit 1.25 billion US dollars from the sale of Poncho and Gaucho, expect the Bayer Corporation to vigorously fight any application prohibitions even if it results in the deaths of millions of more honeybees. The deaths of honeybees mean the loss of the bees’ pollination services, which include more than 100 crops—almond, lettuce, cranberry, and orange to name a few. Honeybees are the keys to agriculture. Through pollination, bees contribute around 15 billion dollars to the U.S. agricultural economy.

Albert Einstein is credited for saying, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

Where has all the honey gone? “Where have all the flowers gone? Long time passing. Oh, when will they ever learn?”*

For a good perspective on the crisis view: www.pollennationthemovie.com

Sandy Powers

www.organicforhealthsite.com

* Pete Seeger

If the world were perfect, supers would be removed and taken to the honey house, to start the processing. Here is this real world the honey can be left in the super too long. Then you have several dangers to consider. Honey remaining in the super can be subject to robbing, by insects or mice, damage by wax moth, and fermentation.

Supers can be stacked in a garage, an outdoor workshop or a room indoors, provided it is clean, dry and protected from excessive heat. Stored honey can be tainted by the odors from paint, chemicals and even cooking.

The stored supers with honey are still at risk of dangers from ants, earwigs, bees and wasps. Plus physical and chemical changes can take place in honey that has been in storage for a prolonged length of time.

The main factor in honey is the water content. Honey with more than 21% water content with the exception of heather or clover honey is not fit for sale, except for industrial use. Honey when exposed to the air will attract moisture from the atmosphere and in very dry, warm atmosphere, the honey will lose water, and the quality will improve. Sign to watch for are watery honey running from open cells, bubbly honey, and honey weeping through cappings. One or more cells in this condition in a super will not ruin the lot.  You have not wasted your time extracting it for human consumption. However, the bees will readily take it back as a feed, with no ill effects.

A honey room for the purpose of processing honey has some requirements. First thing is hygiene; Floors and surfaces need to be washable. A toilet facility needs to be available along with washing facilities. Hot and cold water may not be imperative, but are strongly recommended. When family and friends extract honey only for consumption and not sold on the market, the odd bee wing or lump of wax is not a disaster. However, when it comes to honey for sale, if unsatisfactory in any way, can bring a visit from a Trading Standards officer to scrutinize every part of the operation. If keeping bees and wasps out is a difficult task, to may be worth doing this process at night when the foragers are not flying. After working during the night, all the honey can be packed away, supers sealed and equipment washed before enough bees discover the feast.

The thickness of liquid honey changes with temperature- the higher the temperature, the runnier the honey. The lower the temperature the thicker the honey making it difficult or even impossible to remove from the extractor. As a rule of thumb the temperature should range between 70?F and 95?F. The frames will empty quickly and setting or “ripening” is more, thorough. Air escapes easily with less froth, and heavier particles drop quickly. The honey room layout should be planned so that there is an easy flow from one task to the next. Lifting and moving of supers and frames should be minimized.

Honey and wax will inevitable reach every corner of the room, floor, door handles, taps-anything touched by foot or hand will be sticky. Throughout the processing, keep handy one bucket of warm soapy water for washing surfaces. This will help keep the mess under control, and another container for washing hands and utensils. Wax is removable with a sharp stick when the room is cooler.

As a beekeeper just starting out it can be extremely confusing with all the hives, frames and even bees, and that doesn’t even include the honey extracting equipment.  For a beekeeper with only one hive it may not cost effective to lay out the money for elaborate equipment. It is perfectly practical to enjoy the honey crop using basic kitchen tools. Before a super is put on the hive in the spring, the decision has to be made how to harvest the honey.

Cut comb honey is cut out of the frame and packed in 8 oz. and 12 oz. pieces. It is eaten with the wax comb, and is one of the best ways to present honey as aromas and flavors are unimpaired by extracting and heating. Granulated honey in comb is not very attractive to most customers. 

To the beginner who does not have access to an extractor, this method is attractive, because a very small amount of equipment is required.  To cut comb honey the super frames should be fitted with “thin super ” or “extra thin” foundation. A whole sheet is usually used for each frame.  A 25 to 50 mm deep full-width starter strip may be used instead. Cut comb containers commonly used can comfortably hold a comb about 40 mm thick.

Examine the frame before cutting to decide which side of the comb has the better appearance. Lay the frame on a clean tray, and the whole comb cut out of the frame with a sharp knife. Only the best parts of the comb can be used. The hollow parts at the edge should not be used and uncapped cells kept to a minimum. A sharp kitchen knife, a cheese wire, or a stainless steel comb cutter can be used to cut the combs. All portions of cut comb should stand on a grid to let the honey drain from the outside cut cells.  A piece of comb honey swimming in its container in liquid honey is poor presentation. Because heather honey is a gel it can be packaged straight away. The best storage for comb honey is in a deep freeze, in special plastic boxes, where comb will keep indefinitely. Freezing packaged comb honey will also kill any wax moth eggs and larvae.  Comb honey stored in any other fashion must be examined regularly for signs of deterioration. Another development of comb honey is chunk honey. Chunk honey is a piece of cut comb is put in a jar and surrounded with a clear runny honey, producing what is am attractive presentation.

Wax cappings are a valuable by product of extracting. After cappings have dripped dry, wash them in water to remove all honey. Melt the cappings, strain the wax through nylon and pour it into bread pans or a similar mold. Supply companies can render you beeswax bricks into new foundation at considerable savings.

An experience bee craftsman accomplishes section honey. Section honey is the finest and traditional way of presenting honey. There are tricks and quirks to this method that demand great attention. If you are interested in learning the craftsmanship of this type of honey presentation, you will have to get specialized books or literature on the subject. It is so detailed it can not be covered and given the justice it deserves in a small publication.

It is possible to extract honey without the assistance of a centrifugal extractor, by just using basic kitchen implements to cope with one or more supers. It will be time consuming, sticky and inefficient, but if it means that the beekeeper’s family can obtain some benefit from his or her obsession, it will be worth while.

This method of extraction requires that the comb, cappings, cells, and honey to be scraped from the frame. A large table spoon or serving spoon handled carefully will allow the foundation to be left intact, while both sides are scraped reasonable dry. A few holes here and there will not matter to the bees who will patch it up later. The honey and wax should be mashed up in a clean basin or bucket, then tipped into a sieve or similar strainer and left to drain for at least overnight, but possible even for days. The wax left in the strainer will still contain a lot of honey, which is best fed back to the bees, by diluting with warm water, and putting the mix, wax and liquid, into any kind of feeder.

The warmer the honey the easier it runs.  So prior to the extracting it is best to warm the honey. A pile of supers with a large amount of honey will not warm up enough by simply bringing them into a warm room for an hour or so. It might take as many as two days to do the job. The moisture content of the honey will be reduced during a warming process. To accomplish the warming of the honey, it is possible to pile the supers in staggered stacks with a fan heater directed towards them. There are some drawbacks to keep in mind.

Heating will remove some of the compounds that give the honey its unique flavor and aroma. Prolonged heat can darken and damage the honey. There are tests to be used to distinguish overheated honey.

The wax will soften making uncapping more difficult, with cell walls dragged along by the knife. This will happen at 400?C, at 450?C combs will soften and collapse, and at 630 wax will melt.

Each frame is lifted from the super with one lug located on a bar over a bucket or tray or tank. The capping is then removed by using a cold knife, cappings scratcher, cranked uncapping fork, or electric knife. The amount of honey mixed with the wax cappings will vary, depending on the method used for the uncappings.

The simplest way, is by uncapping into a bucket, basin or uncapping tray and then by gravity straining with a strainer or sieve. A filter bag, tailored to a 70 lb. plastic tank is typically used. The honey left in the wax cappings can be washed out and used for making mead (a honey wine) or fed back to the bees.

Using a heated tray while uncapping, the wax and honey can be separated and processed at the same time will cut out a lot of the sticky work. The stainless steel tray has an electrically heated water jacket. Honey will run down the surface, while the wax is held back and gradually melts. The honey and the wax will end up in the same bucket. The wax solidifying and floating on top of the honey will separate the wax from the honey.

Peter A. Gloor has coined the term COIN, which is an abbreviation for Collaborative Innovation Networks.  A COIN, according to Dr. Gloor, is “a cyberteam of self-motivated people with a collective vision, enabled by the Web to collaborate in achieving a common goal by sharing ideas, information and work”.  The Internet permits these participants to develop and disseminate creative ideas to anybody across the globe almost instantaneously, and at minimal cost per transaction.  This is the underpinning of ever accelerating rates of innovation and problem solving, and organizations ignore this new reality at their peril.

Perhaps structured business processes are to the last few decades of the 20th century what assembly line production was to the industrial age — a drive for ever increasing efficiencies and cost savings.  According to Dr. Gloor, the current challenges for businesses are to optimize flow of knowledge, streamline unstructured innovation processes and turn organizations into COINs.   COINs, however, may be considered by some managers as a threat to their traditional hierarchy and even to their traditional authority.

In his book <i>Swarm Creativity</i>, Dr. Gloor suggests that “swarm creativity”, with analogies to social insects where no insect is in charge, may be the only way we can succeed in a world that is continually increasing in complexity and that can not be comprehended by a single individual.  The traditional structure of having a central commander to coordinate activities and provide and communicate a clear vision and direction, such as is done through the chain of command from chief executive officer, to vice presidents, managers, supervisors, and finally to the insect workers, may not be the best model for today.  COINs permit self organization, agility, flexibility and a strong sense among all participants that they want to succeed in innovation.  And they want their innovation spread and accepted, in many cases, world-wide. 

In COINs, members share all their findings, the results of their common work, and the credit for the results of their collaborative work.  Dr. Gloor has analyzed a number of COINs and concluded that their results can be “awesome”. He has identified seven “critical success factors” for COINs.  The most surprising is the seventh:  “Know when to change to a conventional organizational structure” (once a commercial product has been developed, move it to a project team or a business unit!).  Gloor ends his book on an optimistic note explaining that COINs can be actively created and their unique culture maintained.

I had an opportunity to ask Dr. Peter Gloor some questions about his ideas.

<b>Vern Burkhardt (VB)</b>  How did you first become interested in collaborative innovation networks?

<img src=”http://www.ideaconnection.com/articles/images/peter-gloor.jpg” align=left alt=”Peter Gloor” border=0 style=”margin:0 15px 3px 0″><b>Dr. Gloor:</b>
I accidentally discovered the power of COINs when I was leading the e-Business practice for Deloitte Consulting in Europe, at the height of the e-Business hype. A few of us got excited about knowledge management and virtual communities. As the firm officially did not want to support our interests, we formed a special-interest group of enthusiasts, spread out around the world, and collaborating mostly virtually, outside of the official organizational structure. What I found is that this group worked far more efficiently than a conventional group managed in top-down style. Without official blessing, and with almost zero budget, we created new consulting products and marketing materials of high quality, and high commercial value.

<b>VB:</b>  Is it true that collaborative innovation networks appear to emerge and work best among highly self-motivated people, who may even be considered as renegades if they are in most large organizations?

<b>Dr. Gloor:</b>
Yes, absolutely, I saw this over and over again. This finding is supported by academics researching disruptive innovation such as Harvard professor Clayton Christensen, who found that disruptive innovators usually move out of a large company in order to grow their business.  In my own professional career working at a large multinational corporation we started a WWW-based Intranet without official blessing, at a time when the concept was virtually unknown. Against all organizational obstacles, we created one of the first company Intranets, which became a huge success. Most of the people in the team later left the company, but used the skills they acquired very successfully in their further careers.

<b>VB:</b>  One of the interesting features of COINs, as I believe you describe them, is they operate best without designated leaders.  Is that the essence of good teamwork?

<b>Dr. Gloor:</b>
A COIN has leaders! Only they are not appointed from the outside, rather it is the community members selecting their own leaders. A COIN is not egalitarian, but a meritocracy. And if leaders are not to the liking of the COIN anymore, the COIN is very quick in replacing them. The Debian Linux opensource developers set an excellent example, having replaced their own leaders repeatedly in a grassroots way, while fully documenting this process on their Web site.

<b>VB:</b>  It seems that managers would be very motivated to encourage the emergence of COINs in their organizations, and yet you suggest in your book, <i>Swarm Creativity</i>, that most managers would rather live with a problem than with a solution they do not fully understand or control.  Is it mainly a fear of loosing control over their employees or a fear of “disruptive innovations” that keeps many managers or even entrepreneurs from embracing COINs?

<b>Dr. Gloor:</b>
Human nature does not like change. Most people prefer a stable and secure environment. A COIN brings disruptive change. Ultimately the output of a COIN leads to radically new, superior solutions. But the way to get there can be quite rocky, and might take uncontrollable twists and turns. Most managers like to be in charge, like to know what is going on at all times, and like to control their environment, which is all an antithesis to COINs. I see that trend changing, however, having now worked with many “enlightened” managers who trust in the self-organizing swarm creativity of the organizations they are leading.

<b>VB:</b>  In <i>Swarm Creativity</i> you make what you describe as a “bold leap” by saying that steps can be taken to make COINs happen.  Will that be one of the keys to success for organizations and businesses in the future?

<b>Dr. Gloor:</b>
Making COINs happen means to create an environment where COINs flourish. Nurturing COINs is similar to a beekeeper who nurtures a swarm of bees, such that the bees produce more honey, or that the swarm swarms and splits such that a new swarm will emerge. Organizations, which want to nurture COINs, are like beekeepers supportive of swarming. Swarming is a risky process, it is largely uncontrollable, and yet, the expert beekeeper observing his/her hive will usually catch the swarm, and get it back to double the honey output. The same metaphor applies to organizations supportive of COINs. Observe the COIN members, let them develop their ideas, provide a fertile nurturing ground for developing new ideas, and you will reap the rewards.

<b>VB:</b>  What do you think might be some of the problems in the world, which if dealt with by COINs, might result in practical solutions that could actually be implemented and make life better for those who do not have the resources or expertise to address the problems?

<b>Dr. Gloor:</b>
There are far too many examples to give an exhaustive list. COINs can be put to work basically in any imaginable surrounding, from environmental issues, to bridging the digital divide, to increasing efficiency in large corporations.

I can only give a few non-representative examples.

There is a community called TenCube organized by Julian Gresser, which wants to develop new energy cells with ten times the capacity at a fraction of the price, to power light sources in developing countries. They have already built a first successful pilot. 

The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) initiative sets another great example for the power of COINs. It is a radically new alternative to Intel/Windows powered laptops.  Leveraging the power of COINs, “Queen Bee” Nicholas Negroponte has put together a small team of highly motivated volunteers, who have taken on multibillion dollar multinational corporations to produce a superb product at a fraction of the price. The OLPC laptop is to be given to all children world-wide, originally for a price of $100, now up to $188, but still much cheaper than comparable products from established vendors. 

There are also COIN success stories in decidedly old-fashioned industries such as retail: Swiss retailer Migros has created a new low-cost product line called M-Budget, which was the product of an internal COIN. It established the M-Budget product line against large organizational obstacles, becoming a huge success.

Microlending as organized by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunnus sets another great example, where a community self-organizes to bootstrap new business. In microlending, lenders do not put up physical assets, but use their social capital in their community as collateral to secure a loan.

And finally, the way LEGO integrated the work of outside enthusiasts who hacked the software of their Mindstorm product line also nicely documents the commercial viability and power of COINs.

Dr. Gloor’s description of the benefits of COINS is a compelling reason why they should be nurtured and encouraged to thrive in an organization.  Who would argue against making their organization more innovative, more agile, able to uncover hidden business opportunities, adept at reducing costs and time to market, and identifying and rewarding innovators irrespective of where they are in the organization’s hierarchy? 

<i>Dr. Peter Gloor is a Research Scientist at the Center for Collective Intelligence at MIT’s Sloan School of Management where he leads a project exploring Collaborative Innovation Networks.  His book <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.ideaconnection.com/books/3-Swarm-Creativity-Competitive-Advantage-through-Collab.html”>Swarm Creativity:  Competitive Advantage through Collaborative Innovation Networks</a>, which was published by Oxford University Press, can be purchased online from <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.ideaconnection.com/books/3-Swarm-Creativity-Competitive-Advantage-through-Collab.html”>amazon.com</a>.</i>

Beeswax begins its journey on the flowers you see in the spring and summer dotting the highway… and even on the flowers in your front yard. The nectar the bees collect is taken back to their hive for food, among other things. The bees process the nectar into honey. Honey is their main food source, with any excess being stored in the hive for leaner months when food is scarce. Today I want to educate you about the other use for honey: its conversion into beeswax.

For as long as there have been honey bees, humans have consumed their honey and used the beeswax for everything from medicines to coin of the realm. People have used it to make beauty products, art, and even candles. At many points in human history it has ultimately been used as a currency. The process of making beeswax is more complex than an oil refinery that makes petroleum-based products.

Beeswax is essential to the bee colony. It’s the honeybee that produces beeswax – in particular, the worker bees (always females) that use the wax to build their honeycombs. They have special glands on the underside of the abdomen that secrete the wax, which extrudes from the glands on their legs as a transparent liquid that the bees then chew and press into the cells of their honeycomb. When the beeswax dries it turns into a hard, white substance, although because of the presence of pollen it is often yellowish, or even red. Beeswax also darkens with age and use, for example, when bees are raising a brood. The color has no physical effect on the quality of the wax itself, merely an aesthetic one.

Because of the way the beeswax is made, it often smells like honey… if your beeswax has a “chemical” or “medicinal” odor, it has probably been altered by the humans processing it. Bleaching used to be very popular, but has been abandoned because customers demand 100% purity in their beeswax; and discerning customers can tell the difference.

Beekeepers have gathered beeswax since the beginning of recorded history and farther back – but even after millennia, it’s still a labor-intensive process. The wax is collected from the hive by beekeepers using smoke to make the bees more docile. It’s safer for the bees this way; the smoke is not to protect the beekeeper, nor does it harm the bees in any way. It is then melted down and fashioned into “cakes”. These cakes are very durable, and have been traded for centuries by many cultures as a long-lasting commodity. In some parts of the world beeswax is still the most readily available type of wax, used for many different purposes from healthcare to gardening. It is very pliable and weatherproof. Usable beeswax has even been found in tombs!

Throughout the ages, beeswax has played a significant role in history and folk lore. As one goes back in time, the list of its uses becomes even longer and its significance more pronounced. The importance of honey production in ancient times was often secondary to the production of beeswax. Fines were levied and taxes paid in beeswax as recently as the 17th century. 

Even in modern times beeswax finds many uses and applications:

Candle-making
Lip balms (a recipe for this is provided at the bottom of this article, free of charge)
Cosmetics
Medicinal creams
Waterproofs shoes, fishing lines
Lubricant for doors, windows, tools
Wax for skis, toboggans, bow strings
Creates a freely moving surface on irons and frying pans
Furniture polish
Soap making
Beard and mustache wax
Grafting wax
Crayons
Sealing on jams and jellies
Reconstructive surgery
Leather waterproofing
Embalming procedures
Dental procedures
Polishes
Wood filler
Tack cloth

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I’ve included a beeswax lip balm recipe below, or you can check out our lip balms at www.NeeNeesSoapShop.com.  Thanks for reading!

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Beeswax Lip Balm Recipe

Basically, proportions will be as follows:

40% of your recipe should be any cosmetic grade oil that is liquid at room temperature (sweet almond, apricot kernel, avocado, grapeseed, hemp seed, macadamia, olive, sunflower, etc.)

25% of your recipe should be any cosmetic grade oil that is solid at room temperature (coconut, lanolin, palm, mango butter, shea butter, etc.)

20% of your recipe should be cosmetic grade Beeswax (white or yellow, pellets or solid blocks)

15% of your recipe should be any cosmetic grade oil that is brittle at room temperature (cocoa butter, palm kernel, etc.)

* The above measurements are “weights”, so you can calculate your own recipe in ounces, grams, or pounds.

Directions: melt all carrier oils, honey, beeswax and butters over low heat. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then add the flavored oils, essential oils, vitamin E, etc. Stir until all ingredients are blended well and pour into containers. The easiest way to do this, is to purchase those inexpensive “pointy” paper drink cups (like the kind on the side of a water cooler). Cut off the point and use it as a funnel. Then you can just toss them out when you’re finished!

You may have to “play around” with this recipe by adding a tiny bit more or less of the beeswax pellets. As with any of these recipes, if it comes out too soft, add a few more beeswax pellets; if it’s too hard, add a little more almond oil (or other oil). They’re really hard to mess up, so enjoy yourself and have fun.

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