Lewis, left, holds a “Merry X-Moose!” ornament made from beeswax. Above, beeswax is scraped from the honeycomb. Matt Mazzocchi, right, pours hot beeswax into molds to create shaped candles.
Making the ornaments Like most farmers, Lewis wanted to utilize everything at his operation, even the byproducts—which is how he got the idea of making holiday ornaments and candles from the beeswax he collects. Young bees secrete wax from glands in their abdomen, a process similar to a human sweating. The wax hardens when exposed to air. The bees take the flakes of wax and shape them into the honeycomb that makes up the inside of a beehive. To harvest the wax, Lewis waits until the honey boxes fill. He removes the bees, takes a pallet of honey without bees to his warehouse and puts it in a centrifuge that separates the honey. “When we extract the honey, we shave off the thin layer of beeswax that seals the honey in the combs, and we end up with a pile of sticky beeswax. We drain the honey out of it. The sticky wax goes into a wax melter. It f loats to the top and can be skimmed off. Nothing gets wasted,” he said. Beeswax is known for its soft, golden glow and sweet
The beekeeping biz Lewis founded Bill ’s Bees in 1991 with his wife, Liane, who also quit the aerospace industry. With hives located in the Angeles National Forest, Bill ’s Bees produces several varieties of honey sold at seven Southern Ca l ifornia farmers markets and on his website, which also features beeswax ornaments and candles, plus the soap, lip balm and lotion bars his wife makes. Lewis currently has about 100 colonies of bees. There are about 40,000 to 60,000 bees in one colony, which l ive in the hive. He sa id hi s a re “gent le behaving bees” descended from European Italian honeybees that can tolerate heat and cold and are good honey producers. Bees are essentia l for pol l inating many crops, including almonds, apples, blueberries, citrus fruit and avocados. There are 1,600 species of native bees in Ca l ifornia a lone, according to the University of California, Berkeley, Bee Lab. Lewis rents his bees to almond growers for pollination.
Powered by FlippingBook