Hi Alan
 
You mention that you have harvested some honey and have wax which you
wish the bees to re-utilise.
 
The best way to let them do this is to save up the wax and have it
rolled into foundation (send to your local foundation supplier).
 
Bees love nothing more than a big clean sheet of foundation inbetween
their outer brood frames and a big jug of sugar water. You will
notice that the next generation of bees reared in this cleaner
environment (fresh wax) are hard working and large. A bit like
children reared in a nice fresh new suburb which does not yet have
any broken bottles lying around to hurt them.
 
Alternatively you can leave the wax out in a warm spot and they will
steal it and use it in making propolis and brood cappings I believe.
I have often bee surprised at how much they can remove in short while
on a warm day in late autumn.
 
A read of a priest (Catholic) in the Congo once who was convinced the
little pigmie kids from the settlement nearby were sneaking into the
high windows and stealing the candles. One day he was in the church
over lunch when people normally take a nap because of the heat and he
saw a constant stream of bees strip mining his candles and taking
little loads of wax away. It turned out that at this time the sun
shone through and warmed the candles up, thus they could get their
little mandibles into the wax and chew it of and haul it away. Any
other time of day, the sun was not there and the bees could not
steal!!
 
Keep well
 
Garth
 
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
Eastern Cape Prov.
South Africa
 
Time = Honey
 
After careful consideration, I have decided that if I am ever a V.I.P
the I. may not stand for important.
(rather influential, ignorant, idiotic, intelectual, illadvised etc)