Hi Garth.

>...bees do in fact gather wax. ....They use it in propolis, and also in coverings.

Very interesting. I too have seen my bees gather wax from a (forgotten)
queen excluder outside the hive and totally ignore bits of wax INSIDE the hive.

Older beekeepers have told me, that they reuse old wax for capping honey.
It seem obvious, that we have more than one kind of wax in the hive, but Your
observation on reuse for propolis is new for me - can You comment on that?

Lars in Denmark
(on top of Germany   :-D  )
... at about 55.25 N, 10.23 E