Bee products

Bee products are the materials a honeybee colony makes or gathers in the hive besides Honey: beeswax, bee pollen, bee bread, royal jelly and propolis. Each has its own origin: wax is built into combs, pollen is carried in on the legs, royal jelly feeds larvae, and propolis seals the nest.

Beeswax. Young bees secrete small wax platelets from eight glands on the underside of the abdomen, chew them with saliva and build combs of hexagonal cells. A comb of about 20 g can hold 1000 g of honey, and ripe honey is capped with wax. It usually melts at 62–65 °C and has long been used for candles, lost-wax casting, paints of old icons and wall paintings, and creams.

Bee pollen. Bees pack pollen into pellets on their hind legs, usually moistened with nectar or honey, so the pellets taste sweet; a bee carries two pellets per trip. A pellet usually comes from one or very few plant species, so it has a typical colour, mostly yellow but also red, purple, green or orange. Bee bread is a partly fermented pollen mixture stored in the combs; its composition differs from fresh pellets, and it feeds larvae and young worker bees.

Royal jelly is secreted by the brood-food gland of young nurse bees to feed young larvae and the queen. It is fed directly, not stored, and is harvested only during queen rearing, from queen cells.

Propolis is the resin-based glue with which bees seal cracks in the nest; its origin, texture and allergy risk are covered under Propolis.

Why this matters to you. FAO notes that many marketing claims about pollen, such as "perfect food" or "miracle food", are untruthful, so judge a product by its origin, not by slogans. Propolis can cause contact allergy, and honey must not be given to babies under 1 year.