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Science Memes @mander.xyz

fossilesque @mander.xyz

2mo ago

wax on

92 comments

How did it never occur to me to ask where bee's wax comes from?
- I mean, it’s right there in the name: beeswax, its own word.
  
  I don't know what I was expecting exactly but it wasn't little wax scales coming from their abdomen
  
  Well it's not like it's called beeswaxoutoftheiryuckysegmentedbody so we still have some room for imagination duh
- ‘Cause it’s nunya
  
  What's nutya?
- U & me both

I don't know why, but this grosses me out so much.
- Yeah it looks really disgusting, like it's shitting soft teeth
  
  oi you didn't need to put that image out there in the world
  you could have just kept that to yourself
  
  What a terrible day to know how to read.
  
  Fuckin bee eczema 🤢
- 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.
- It's setting my trypophobia off for sure.
- Me too, real "Thanks, I hate it"

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.
- It's not like you ain't got glands
  
  Ey gril, can I get a peak at them glands?
  _{I prefer adrenal by thyroid also works in a pinch.}
- Definitely the latter, for me; something about segmented holes just grosses the absolute Hell out of me.
  
  I've got bad news for you about woolen fabrics...
  
  Trypophobia?
- You know where the honey comes from?
  
  Easy, stored in the bee-balls, that's why they're called BBs.

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

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.

What’ll really bake your noodle later on is the wax is made from honey.
- I mean, the whole bee is, if you think about it
  
  If you want to make a bee from scratch, you must first invent the universe
  
  Whoa hey now, you're not going to get me to think that easily
  
  Mostly pollen actually. The honey is just the fuel.
- 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.
  
  Evolution does not create from nothing, it repurposes and modifies what's on hand.
  
  I don't know how I feel about this new revelation
- I never really thought about it but bees are fuckin weird
- 👋😬
  Hi. So.. how do bees work? Eli5
  
  First they go to the unembeeployment office to see where they'd benefit the hive

Hey man, let them live their lives. Mind your own bees wax... It's not your wax, it's the bees wax.
- Everyone should mind their beesness.
  
  It was right there and it flew right by me.
  
  Back in my day, minding your own beesness was the bee's knees!

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.

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

It looks like one side of this bee is clogged

How many flakes in a scale?
- How about a morsel? A chunk?

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

If you spread that stuff on wood or leather, it'll last forever.
- 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.
  
  Fun fact: shellac is an insect product too

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

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

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

Gross, but also neat

Very hairy for a beeswax producer.
- 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.

Weird bee teeth, tooth fairy origins?

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

how many burgers is one lb?
- you do know what quarter pounder means right?
  
  🇬🇧 - It means it costs 25 pence, or £0.25.
  
  It means bigger than a third pounder, right?
  
  You mean a Royale with Cheese?
  
  still depends on if they're the same pound, there are a few to chose from
- Seven bald eagles and three units of freedom
- just one

Gimme some honey and comb on vanilla ice cream

I always though they puked it up

92 comments