It is estimated that bees fly 150,000 miles, roughly six times around the earth, to yield one pound of beeswax (530,000 km/kg).
For each pound of beeswax provided by a honey bee, the bee visits 33 million flowers. It eats 8-10 pounds of honey.
The bee secretes the beeswax from its abdomen, and then uses the wax to construct a honeycomb. When the bees make one pound of beeswax into comb, it will hold 22 pounds of honey. Beekeepers recover the wax from the comb by heating it in water where the melted wax rises to the surface and can be removed.
Beeswax has been used since the beginning of civilization. It has been found in the pharaohs’ tombs, sunken Viking ships and Roman ruins. Beeswax is basically the duct tape of old, with thousands of uses and indispensable.
Beeswax does not go bad and has been recovered from ancient ship wrecks heated up and is still usable. The oldest known notebooks used sheets of beeswax for pages. Recovered from ancient Mediterranean shipwrecks, stylus marks pressed in the wax pages can still be read after centuries on the sea floor.
Healing and spiritual powers have been attributed to all products of the beehive. Honey has always been considered holy, a gift from God, and endowed with esoteric and mystical qualities. The Path of Pollen, or bee shamanism, is a calling into the secrets of healing, longevity, and spiritual powers of bee products, including honey, wax, and pollen. The Hebrew word for bee is dbure, meaning word, with the message being that the bee brings the Divine word. Specifically beeswax candles are designated for the Christian Roman Mass.
Beeswax candle fuel is the only fuel that actually produces negative ions, which not only helps remove pollution from the air but increases the ratio of negative ions to positive ions, the ideal and necessary scenario for clean air.
Air contains billions of electrically charged particles called ions. Ions act upon our capacity to absorb and utilize oxygen, and therefore cause powerful effects on our lives and well being. The ions in the air can affect our mood, energy and health. Negative ions actually feel good. Too many positive ions make us feel bad and they are loaded down with pollution and allergens that are drawn to them and suspended in the air. Negative ions, on the other hand, remove the pollution and allergens from positive ions, allowing them to drop harmlessly to the ground.
Beeswax candles are recommended by the American Lung Association.
Many have written about the wisdom of the beehive, and how burning beeswax puts a person in a special mood of reverence. It is easy to imagine why, given that millions of flowers have been visited and pollinated to make any one beeswax candle!
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