BEESWAX FACTS

What is beeswax really? Honey bees collect nectar from flowers and process it into honey.
Nectar and honey provide the energy for bees' flight muscles and for heating the hive
during the winter period. Honey bees also collect pollen, which supplies protein for bee
brood to grow. It has been estimated that honey bees eat 8lbs. of honey to produce 1lb. of
wax. Beeswax is made by the worker bees and is produced from the glands on their abdomens.
The wax is then used to make the honeycombs which store the honey. When the bees have filled
each cell in the comb with honey, they cover all the cells with wax caps. At harvest time,
the beekeeper cuts off the wax cappings and extracts the honey from the comb.

We receive the raw cappings from the beekeeper in barrels and rinse out the left over honey
with warm water. We then put the cappings into our melting tank with water and melt the cappings
slowly and gently over low heat. When the wax is melted we pour off the beeswax and water into
buckets through honey strainer cloth to filter out the large bee debris and slum gum and allow to
cool. Once we have enough blocks of pre-filtered beeswax, we then fill up the tank again with
beeswax blocks and let sit on low heat for several days to allow the very fine suspended particulates
to settle out of the beeswax. We then ladle off the beeswax through a filter material that removes
"dirt" down to one micron. The "dirt" that clogs the wicking is between one micron and 5 microns in
size. Triple filtering beeswax through J-cloth , panty hose , or other paper filters still allows
this fine "dirt" to remain in the beeswax causing "carbon capping" or "mushrooming" to occur. By
filtering the beeswax through such a fine filter material we remove all the "dirt" that may cause
a poorly burning flame. Our slow and gentle process maintains the integrity of the beeswax , retaining
the nice light yellow colour and sweet aroma . By using this finely cleaned beeswax , we are not forced
to use a course natural fiber wicking which is more tolerant of dirty beeswax to achieve a good burning
flame. Instead we are able to use 100% pure cotton wicking which is specifically designed to be used in
beeswax candles. The cotton is cleaned and whitened using a salt solution.

For more information on self trimming cotton wicking please visit Atkins and Pearce

I met a beekeeper once who said , " you can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ear ".

At Tweedle Bee Candles we use quality raw materials treated with care and respect,
producing quality affordable candles for you to enjoy.

Beeswax Emits Negative Ions !
Yes it's true and finally there is a scientific study to back up the hype! For years alternative
health practitioners, entomologists and most notably beeswax candle makers have celebrated the fact
that beeswax is the only candle fuel that emits negative ions which in turn cleanse the air. In a study
performed by a Japanese laboratory comparing the negative ion emissions of a paraffin candle versus a
beeswax candle the paraffin candle did indeed emit negative ions but did so at a significantly lower rate
than the beeswax candle. So while beeswax is not the only fuel to emit negative ions it is definitely
superior to paraffin and does not contain the carcinogenic compounds that paraffin does.

The Japanese study was performed using a KST-900 made by the Kobe Electric Wave Company in
a room with room air temperature of 24.3 degrees Celsius , room air humidity was 41% and the
background negative ion count was 89 per cc. During the study , paraffin candles produced an
average of 72,972 negative ion particles per cc. of air while beeswax candles produced 101,276
negative ion particles per cc. of air.