Different colors of beeswax

[edenviewgarden]

Can anybody tell me why beeswax is different colors?  I had the the lid off the garbage can hive today  reducing the entrance and noticed that now there is a pure white comb in between some of the yellow ones.  I had been wondering before when I had seen pictures of combs of all white wax why my feral bees made yellow.

Jane

[Michael Bush]

New wax when not a lot of yellow pollen is coming in, is white.  New wax when a lot of yellow pollen is coming in, is yellow.  Old wax that has never had brood in it is yellowish brown.  Wax that has had brood in it is brown and gets darker with every generation of brood because of the cocoons left int he cells.  Old brood comb is black.  All of this is normal.

[edenviewgarden]

Thanks, Michael.

Jane