this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2025
623 points (99.4% liked)

Science Memes

17054 readers
1911 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

I always though they puked it up

[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 42 minutes ago

They probably also hate that animal agriculture is required for permaculture. But they hate a lot, so the song is just a little bit

[–] Johandea@feddit.nu 55 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 20 points 1 day ago

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

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 75 points 2 days ago (3 children)

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.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.~

[–] tomenzgg@midwest.social 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Definitely the latter, for me; something about segmented holes just grosses the absolute Hell out of me.

[–] deltapi@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've got bad news for you about woolen fabrics...

[–] tomenzgg@midwest.social 4 points 1 day ago

Haha; I think the wool's too fuzzy and not rigid enough to bother me. I've been trying to get more into the fiber arts in the last few years, too, so definitely not a problem that I've noticed.

[–] Tonava@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] tomenzgg@midwest.social 6 points 1 day ago

Almost definitely; I don't know if there's a degree that's necessary to qualify as I can still look at it without breaking eye contact (though I hate it). But I have a deep desire to rip that shit up the entire time; deeply repulsive, whatever the reason. Honeycombs don't bother me, though; I dunno.

[–] ook@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

You know where the honey comes from?

[–] Mist101@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Easy, stored in the bee-balls, that's why they're called BBs.

[–] hypna@lemmy.world 159 points 2 days ago (3 children)

How did it never occur to me to ask where bee's wax comes from?

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] don@lemmy.ca 46 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I mean, it’s right there in the name: beeswax, its own word.

[–] villainy@lemmy.world 112 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't know what I was expecting exactly but it wasn't little wax scales coming from their abdomen

[–] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 34 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I always kind of hoped they pooped the wax out like spider's silk.

[–] Theoriginalthon@lemmy.world 35 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I assumed it was like cream separating from milk, only wax from honey, but to be fair I have never really thought about it much

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 33 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I thought they regurgitated it into the honey combs.

[–] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

They do, but in order for them to regurgitate, they first must gorge upon it. They eat it, chew it up and spit it out in the shapes necessary (planar, cylindrical, or otherwise).

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] user1234@lemmynsfw.com 62 points 2 days ago

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

[–] Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago

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

[–] Kernal64@sh.itjust.works 79 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I don't know why, but this grosses me out so much.

It's setting my trypophobia off for sure.

[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 94 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Yeah it looks really disgusting, like it's shitting soft teeth

[–] Winter_Oven@piefed.social 61 points 2 days ago (4 children)

oi you didn't need to put that image out there in the world

you could have just kept that to yourself

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

What a terrible day to know how to read.

[–] Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 3 points 1 day ago
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] RedSnt@feddit.dk 30 points 2 days ago

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.

[–] don@lemmy.ca 52 points 2 days ago (5 children)

What’ll really bake your noodle later on is the wax is made from honey.

[–] meekah@lemmy.world 64 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I mean, the whole bee is, if you think about it

[–] Jimbabwe@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago (2 children)

If you want to make a bee from scratch, you must first invent the universe

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 22 points 2 days ago

Whoa hey now, you're not going to get me to think that easily

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 34 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Opisek@piefed.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 day ago

I don't know how I feel about this new revelation

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago

It looks like one side of this bee is clogged

[–] Seaguy05@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Hey man, let them live their lives. Mind your own bees wax... It's not your wax, it's the bees wax.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] visnudeva@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Very hairy for a beeswax producer.

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 29 points 2 days ago

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

load more comments
view more: next ›