Will bees recycle wax?

[Hethen57]

Will the bees reuse any of the wax from decapping or the crush and strain method, or will they just pull the residual honey and leave the wax?  I've seen them chew out wax foundation.  My hunch is no, since they secrete it from their wax glands and probably only build comb that way, but I figured I'd ask.

[sc-bee]

Never heard of them recycling capping etc. But when they chew foundation and burr comb inside they are recycling or moving it to where they need it.

[Michael Bush]

>Will the bees reuse any of the wax from decapping or the crush and strain method, or will they just pull the residual honey and leave the wax?

They will just take the honey.  Once in a while I see a bee gathering wax, so obviously they can, but that's rare.  They will not take any significant amount.  Propolis on the other hand, they will collect off of old equipment.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmisc.htm#propolis

[G3farms]

>Will the bees reuse any of the wax from decapping or the crush and strain method, or will they just pull the residual honey and leave the wax?

I have seen bees take quarter size balls of wax over several days, they chew it up and then stick it to their pollen baskets. This was small chunks of burr comb that I had removed and laid down. Some was on the hive stands and some was on the porch. They also cleaned up a outside cover (that was used without an inside cover), removed all of the burr/brace comb and the propolis over a weeks time. This was in the 10 to 15 bee range anytime you would look.

G3