Glossary
The various specialized secretions produced by honey bee glands that are essential for colony survival. Key glands include wax glands (producing beeswax scales), hypopharyngeal glands (producing royal jelly and brood food), Nasonov glands (releasing orientation pheromones), and mandibular glands (producing queen substance).
Worker bees possess an remarkable array of glands that produce different substances at different stages of their lives. Young nurse bees (3 to 12 days old) have highly developed hypopharyngeal glands that produce the protein-rich brood food and royal jelly fed to larvae and the queen. As workers age, these glands atrophy and wax glands on the abdomen become active (12 to 18 days old), enabling comb construction.
The Nasonov gland, located on the abdomen, produces a blend of terpenes that bees use as an orientation signal. When bees fan their Nasonov glands at the hive entrance, they release a scent that helps returning foragers and swarms locate the hive. Beekeepers can sometimes smell this pleasant, lemony scent during hive inspections.
Two bee gland products are directly relevant to skincare: beeswax (from wax glands) and royal jelly (from hypopharyngeal glands). Beeswax forms the structural basis of our skincare products, providing barrier protection and moisture retention. Royal jelly, while not used in our products, is valued in premium skincare for its amino acid content and cell-regenerating properties.
Understanding that beeswax is a biological secretion, not a processed industrial product, helps explain why it works so well on human skin. Beeswax evolved to protect and preserve the hive environment, and those same protective properties translate directly to skin protection.
Worker bees consume honey and convert the sugars into wax through specialized wax glands on the underside of their abdomen. The wax is secreted as tiny, transparent scales that the bees then chew and mold into comb. It takes approximately 6 to 8 pounds of honey to produce 1 pound of wax.
Royal jelly is a complex secretion from the hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands of young nurse bees. It contains approximately 60 to 70 percent water, 12 to 15 percent proteins, 10 to 16 percent sugars, 3 to 6 percent fats, and small amounts of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.
No. Gland activity changes throughout a worker bee's life in a process called temporal polyethism. Young bees produce brood food, middle-aged bees produce wax, and older bees have atrophied food glands but active venom glands. The queen and drones have their own unique gland profiles.
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