The Honeybees consumes the honey and with their wax glands on the sides of their bodies they transform the honey into wax scales. (Image is from Dr. Zachary Huang at MSU)

Workers around 6-12 days old can produce wax scales in their four pairs of wax glands. The glands are concealed between the inter-segmental membranes, but the wax scales produced can be seen, usually even with naked eyes. The scales are thin and quite clear. After workers chew them up and add saliva, it becomes more whitish.

These wax scales are used by the honeybees to make honeycombs to store their honey in.

The beekeepers harvest this honey and during the extracting process the cappings (the ends of the hexagonal cells) are cut or scraped off allowing the honey to come out.

These cappings are melted, cleaned from debris and formed into bulk beeswax.