Rendering Bees Wax

[fhafer]

I do honey bee removal from structures and often end up with lots of extra wax....sometimes as much as a five gallon bucket full. I'd like to render the wax out of the schmutz and I'm looking for ideas for doing this. Some comb will have honey, some will have brood, some will have pollen. Usually the bees rob out the honey. I'm thinking of using a turkey cooker with a gallon or two of water and slowly add the schmutz to the hot water to melt the wax out....then I'd ladle the wax off the top after extinguishing the cooker flame. Any thoughts? I've looked at the Maxant processor but it looks more suited for cappings and not for rendering hive schmutz.

Thanks,
Fred

[honeyman46408]

http://beesource.com/plans/melter.htm

[fhafer]

Thanks, but I have one of those. It doesn't keep up and it's not very reliable. I'm producing five or six buckets a week and solar wax melters won't cut it. Anyone use the Maxant melter before?

[John F]

I have a question similar:

I have been throwing the bits and pieces of comb/wax I get into a bucket. Some of it is brood comb and some is from a nuc that I had that got filled with water and then molded.

Do I have to separate the really dirty wax from the clean stuff or will it all come out clean and yellow when I render it?

[Aspera]

Maybe a large crockpot and a burlap sack would work.

[JohnK and Sheri]

John F
Brood comb will darken cappings wax and give it a bad smell. I would seperate it.
Sheri

[fhafer]

I used a turkey fryer with a gallon of water......boiled the water and slowly added the old combs. Worked really well. We strained it through a pasta strainer and poured them into disposable bread loaf pans bought at the dollar store. Made nice little blocks of wax. My wife and daughter are going to try their hands at candle making using this wax....before I give them my cappings.

[nursebee]

I heat water up in a LARGE cheap pot and add wax. I try to do a double boiler. Stir frequently. When liquid, yes it can be filtered but I prefer to either let it sit still to cool or to "filter" it through hardware cloth and then let it sit. Wax stays on top, has some loose junk on it that is easy to scrape off. I'm saving all of these nice yellow chunks for some future use. I prefer to use my outdoor electric stove but have used the gas high BTU butner outside also.

[Gregory and Susan Fariss]

We use a large enameled pot that is meant for canning. We fill it about 2/3 full of water and bring the water to a boil. Then we dump in the wax. While the wax is melting into the water we take an old towel and drape it loosely over a five gallon bucket. We have a lid to the bucket that we had previously cut the center out of - all that is left is the ring that snaps on the bucket. We snap this on to hold the towel in place. When the wax has completely disolved into the water we pour the wax/water into the bucket and then wait. The wax will rise to the top, harden and the nasty water will be under it. The under side of the wax will still have some trash on it, but when we make candles or cosmetics we remelt the wax in a water bath and filter it through something finer like a paper towel or coffee filter. A bonus is that the paper towel or coffee filter makes a great fire starter for camping or for your winter fire logs.

Susan

[newbee 101]

It is amazing to see how much "junk" is in the old brood comb and burr comb.
I just melted mine on an outdoor fireplace, after the fire was down. I use an old excluder for a grill top. Boiling in water works great. I filtered mine with a nylon paint strainer.

[Mabe]

To be a truly "sustainable" beekeeper try putting all of your old bee "junk" from the wax into the compost, or your worm farm, or make compost tea out of it for your plants. We even add deadout colonies to the worms and they're consumed in a matter of days and made into lovely castings.
:)Mabe

[nsmith1957]

Just a couple of quick questions on wax rendering. What is "clean" enough for rendered beeswax to be for sending off to make foundation out of? How much particulates are too much in the wax?

[riverrat]

a turkey fryer will work fine with water I would put the wax in a pair of nylon stockings before adding it to the water this will capture a lot of the junk once the wax is melted out of the stocking use tongs and heavy rubber gloves to squeeze out the exess wax and remove the stocking change out the water and repeat the process without using the stocking until the wax has gotten has clean as you want brood comb may not make as nice a colored wax as you are wanting and will have an odor to it

[berkshire bee]

I used a turkey fryer with a gallon of water......boiled the water and slowly added the old combs. Worked really well. We strained it through a pasta strainer and poured them into disposable bread loaf pans bought at the dollar store. Made nice little blocks of wax. My wife and daughter are going to try their hands at candle making using this wax....before I give them my cappings.

fhafer. Before you pour the candles you'll need to strain it again to get everything out. The wax needs to be very clean to burn properly. I use 100 mesh filter cloth available at betterbee. You may be able to get it at a fabric store. I've heard that some people also use a type of coffee filter.