Only female bees make wax. A worker bee has distinct glands located on her underbelly which secrete wax. It is estimated that five pounds of honey will be ingested by the bees in order to produce one pound of wax. In order to convert the honey to wax the workers must group together to bring the hive to a temperature of 33 degrees Celsius. Clearly durring Toronto’s hot summers the bees must not need to work as hard. This prompts the wax glands of the bees to convert the sugar of the honey they are carrying into wax. It is the youngest of the workers to first excrete wax, in small flake-like sheets that are then passed on to her elder sisters, to build the wax comb for holding eggs or nectar. This is a very long process for the patient bees. For example, building the wax comb over 12 hours will only produce 8 wax flakes. This very reason has beekeepers giving bees a head start by providing a hive with wax coated frames.
Can you imagine the millions of flowers that will need to be visited by bees to produce at least one pound of wax?