Beeswax is a renewable placeable natural block and a useful crafting ingredient as well.
How to obtain
Thousands of Beeswax blocks are already part of all game-worlds at the time of their "creation" and can be found in patches of 1 up to 34 blocks sticking together in the canopies of many trees, often completely embedded in Leaves - except for Shorewood trees and corrupted trees on the Corruption layer.
Blocks of Beeswax can be harvested without requiring a Power Cell, and will not reduce the durability of any Power Cell if one is used.
Usually, a lot of Beeswax can be collected from Cragwood trees and Wildwood trees (in Jungles), but Weepwood trees (in Swamplands) and Autumnwood trees (in Forests) are occasionally a good source as well.
Additionally to that, Beeswax is a regular finding in Wood Treasure Chests that randomly spawn only during night times in dark places on any kind of solid natural surface block. These chests can even spawn on blocks of Beeswax.
Regrowing
More and more Beeswax will grow over time in tree Leaves all by themselves, starting with Queen Bees that randomly spawn here or there on tree tops and will turn into Beeswax by themselves within ca. 4 hours real-time.
When the "Pro" game-world option "more regrowth" is enabled, this will make more Queen Bees spawn all over the world (the most in areas close to where player characters spend their time), but will not make them turn into Beeswax any faster.
Beeswax can also be grown by players - from Queen Bees that will occasionally turn up as an additional harvest when collecting Beeswax. This will only work if you use your gauntlet (with or without Power Cells), not by using Excavators of any kind.
Only rarely single blocks of Queen Bees can be found right after they have spawned on Leaves before they can change into Beeswax - or in environments where Beeswax cannot grow from Queen Bees at all (like in hot areas in Savannahs or Jungles).
Growing Beeswax from Queen Bees
Queen Bees can then be planted on any kind of Wood or Leaves - except for Shorewood, Shorewood Leaves, Dark Wildwood Leaves, Logs and all types of Corrupted Blocks. They can be fertilized with Pigsy Droppings too, but this will only speed the transformation of Queen Bees into Beeswax for 15 minutes, so it will take 3 hours and 45 minutes then. Otherwise it will take at about 4 hours.
You don't have to stay close or even on the game-world for Queen Bees to do their "work"; because Beeswax will also grow while you're offline.
Currently you won't need more than 1 block of Wood or Leaves any more to plant Queen Bees on. However the Biome and area has to be suitable for Beeswax to grow. It cannot be too hot, nor too cold, not in or too close to Swamplands, and not too high up in the sky. Queen Bees might even stay fallow on places where Beeswax has just been harvested that has been part of the template worlds from the beginning.
If planted Queen Bees are fallow (displayed in red letters when looking at the Queen Bee placed in the world) they will not turn into Beeswax at that place no matter what. Beeswax does not need light nor moisture to grow, and Queen Bees can be planted underground too, where it actually will sometimes grow more easily than in certain surface areas.
Each Queen Bee (as long as it's not "fallow") will transform into a "hive" made of up to max. 6 blocks of Beeswax that will replace the Queen Bee. The former Queen Bee will turn into the middle block of Beeswax, and 5 more blocks will appear surrounding this center. If one of these spaces is taken up by other blocks (like when planting Queen Bees too close too each other), no Beeswax can grow there.
Please note that Queen Bees that are put into Flower Pots or Wood Planters will not grow into Beeswax, but merely be preserved there.
Building with Beeswax
Blocks of Beeswax can be placed for decorative or even building means. However, during the day common green Leafies often spawn on Beeswax on spots that aren't lit by artificial luminaries.
Depending on the Biome, Night Leafies or Night Twiggies might only very rarely show up at night on blocks of Beeswax.
Crafting with Beeswax
Beeswax is an ingredient for many crafting recipes and can be melted into Melted Wax by putting it into a Forge together with some Fuel.
No crafting recipe is required for this. Simply carry blocks of Beeswax with you in your inventory/bag or quickbar when activatinga a Forge that has been placed into the game-world. Choose Beeswax then and any type of Fuel (for starters Leaves will be sufficient, or Wood Rods, later on Coal or even better Fuel).
One Beeswax will melt into 8 Melted Wax each in a Forge.
This will take different amounts of time depending on the type of Fuel you will use. Tier 1 Fuel will melt Beeswax the slowest, taking 10 seconds for each stack of 8x Meltex Wax.
Currently, Beeswax is required to craft:
Trivia
Different from flammable Queen Bees and Moss, Beeswax will not change in any way if you try to burn it, for example if you throw Fire Bombs at it, ignite a tree with torches (or other objects with open fire) in a hot Biome, or even if you place blocks of Beeswax into liquid Lava.
When burning trees down as a slash-and-burn method, blocks of Beeswax, then tree Flowers and Vines might prevail by floating in the air, while all tree Leaves and Wood blocks around them will be completely consumed by fire.
Beeswax cannot be multiplied by placing it and picking it up again like you can do with tree Flowers which will sometimes yield additional blocks of Flowers.