Energetics of Honey/Beeswax Conversion

Abstract

By the mid-19th century consideration of the rates and costs of wax production by A. mellifera were developed using the balance sheet method. Moreover, it was known that brood, pollen, combs and queens affect wax production. A century later, sugar/wax conversion ratios were defined as the net amount of sugar consumed against wax produced. Taranov (1959) showed that the total amount of wax produced was linearly related to the amount of sugar consumed; others that comb construction was proportional to colony size and to nectar income. The experiments and observations of this period suffered from a failure to separate the costs of colony maintenance vis-à-vis the production of wax. However, two major factors remained in the cost equation: (1) the relative importance of colony age structure in wax production; and (2) the problems of heat production, colony size and the synthesis of wax itself. Subsequently, Hepburn et al. (1984) calculated the rate of sugar consumption (corrected for attrition), and sugar stored in the nascent combs, as well as the rate of comb construction. The real metabolic rate, averaged over time for bees of different ages, showed that a plateau was reached in bees at about 12 days old, figures that included an adjusted metabolic rate as a function of bee age. This trade-off or cost calculation comes into play at both individual and colony levels. Both wax secretion and construction rapidly decline in autumn and virtually cease during winter. It is not yet possible to adequately assess the relationship of wax synthesis and comb construction to the thermal conditions of a colony’s nest.