# Toxic foundations in France, Belgium, and the Nederlands



## JWChesnut

Weirdly, the "doubtful" comb in the images shown appear to spotty drone comb. Spotty drone comb develops for reasons unrelated to the quality of the wax.


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## BernhardHeuvel

[SUP][/SUP]Also see: 
http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?329845-Beeswax-from-China

Same in Germany. Something is toxic in that wax. We still investigate what is going on.


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## BernhardHeuvel

What we found so far is foundations, made from 100 % Stearin and other foundations with varying amounts of paraffine. 

Also it is possible that a solvent/lubrication that is used in foundation making: Undeceth-8 reacts with the stearin in the adulterated wax. 

We all see this brood damage, very bad brood damage. You see eggs, spots of capped cells, almost no young larvae. The eggs do hatch, but the youngest larvae die.

I'll post some pictures morrow night.


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## sqkcrk

DocBB said:


> this season the wax renewal was tragic for many beekeepers,
> the Belgian and on French organisation have published surveys to find out
> 
> main problems were *mosaic comb*, queen giving up the (new) frames, sunken larvae
> 
> the french survey
> 
> the belgian one
> 
> of course it is french langauge, but keep an eye !


Looking at the edges of the combs, those combs look like they were not based on foundation. But you say they were?


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## JWChesnut

sqkcrk said:


> Looking at the edges of the combs, those combs look like they were not based on foundation. But you say they were?


I noticed that too. Foundation put on in late summer is eaten back (for capping wax), but those frames have the nearly tell-tale "foundationless gap".


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## BernhardHeuvel

We are not speaking about those two combs exclusively. At least in four nations you see combs similar to those. You can reproduce the effects, just hang foundation of the adulterated wax into a healthy hive and you see the mosaic/shotgun pattern.


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## beepro

The new frame at the lower right side by the bottom bar you will
see some undrawn foundation cell. Sometimes the bees will chew out
the edges of the side foundation to go through the other side. I have
installed foundation wax that they chewed through to prove. 
What is the origin of these wax foundation? Which date or manufacturing by what
company?


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## BernhardHeuvel

Some impressions how it does look like if you have toxic foundations:










What you end up with is a shotgun pattern. The main thing you see, is that there is old larvae or capped brood in that comb, surrounded with tons of eggs. Eggs hatch, but the youngest larvae keep on dying. Some get through and those get capped normally. Hence the shotgun pattern.










This is a screenshot of the laboratory results. The blue line shows normal beeswax and the red line the adulterated wax, which is almost 100 % Stearin + some Palmitin. 










What we found in wax that is sold as 100 % beeswax is all sorts of adulteration: Paraffine in all possible degrees of adulteration, Stearin, Palmitin...wow. Just wow. 

The effects can be reproduced all the time. Just put a toxic foundation next to combs of a healthy hive. You get this (out of the very same hive, side by side):










There must be something biotoxic in those foundations. Something that kills young larvae. Effects are found all over Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and France. That is what we know so far.

We are investigating, wether it is a lubrication used during foundation making (Undeceth-8), the combination of it with Stearin or other possible contamination sources. It is said, that about 40 tons of the toxic wax entered the European market in 2016 alone.


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## BernhardHeuvel

Stearin is a bit harder than beeswax, paraffine a bit softer. The one foundation in the front is adulterated with paraffine. 










Those adulterated foundations easily collapse or curve when drawn out.










Spotty brood. You see little to no 1-3 day larvae, although the queen lays eggs into it over and over again. For weeks.



















The queen is fine, hive healthy otherwise. This is a pure beeswax foundation: all stages of brood can be found.










Some other combs, the same hive.





























Because coloring is used, the adulterated or fake foundations appear to be a bit more yellow. An unreal yellow. That especially can be seen when melting the wax. 

Also the surface of the toxic foundations feel fatty or a little like grease.


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## costigaj

Anything going into the food chain sourced from China should be suspect.


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## sakhoney

where did this foundation originate? Guess I'll just stick with plastic


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## beepro

Over here we have local sourced foundation.
Take less time for the bees to draw out the cells. Since ebay
has many China bee stuffs I'll be very weary of buying any.


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