Bees Wax Prices

[RSUCHAN]

My son called Dadant's the 1st part of the week & made a deal to trade a ton of beeswax for $2.00 towards equiptment.
He got the load in to them yesterday & got the bad news that the price had dropped almost .40 cents a pound.
They did honor the $2.00 deal but talk about a kick in the jimmies.
WOW.

[michituck]

Huh. We been selling it for $7 a pound around here.

[iddee]

Since they honored the deal, what's the problem. Prices change regularly. Maybe by the time he collects another ton, it will be up to 2.50.
It does teach that you need to deal before shipping, not just ship for going rate.

[RSUCHAN]

Your talking retail for the $7 bucks deal.
Wax was as high as $2.35 60 days or so ago.
That's a 20% drop in a few days time.

[Ian]

I sold my cappings for 1.9$/lbs white wax price net. Rendering is about .2$ cost.

What was the reason given for the .4$ drop? The wholesale price of wax doesnt tend to fluctuate that much.

[soupcan]

Same ole story.
No demand & seems lot of big guys were sitting on how many years worth of product.

[NeilV]

About how many hives does it take to make a ton of wax in a year?

[berkshire bee]

retail price went up at Betterbee. Last year it was $75 for a good clean 20lb block. Around nov/dec it jumped to $90 and is still there

[jlyon]

I wouldn't necessarily view Dadant's lowered bid as an indication of a lower wax market. It could just be a situation where they are well stocked for their needs for awhile and they are only willing to buy if they can get a bargain. I might qualify as one of those "big guys" sitting on a number of years of production. My logic is that A: Beeswax is a very scarce commodity when one considers how little is produced. Relative to honey production it seems to me it should be worth far more than about double the price. B:At some point with oil prices always on the climb and paraffin as it's main competitor won't their come a point where, at the very least, it becomes more valuable simply because of the heat it produces.C: Some unforseen use may emerge such as the patenting of a product to clean up oil spills that used beeswax (never hear any more about that). and of course D: It keeps very well although not necessarily in raw capping form.

[soupcan]

That's just it Paraffin took a big jump up we were told.
Dadant's told my son that there had record amounts of wax turned in in the past 60 days.
With the short crops in the Dakota's we were surprised.
As far as how many hives it take to make a ton of wax?
We don't figure how many hives it takes but usually figure for evey 10 drum of honey we should get 100 to 125 pounds of rendered wax.

[Michael Bush]

I'd be happy to pick 100 pounds up for $2.50 a pound or so...

[Ian]

I produced roughly 800-1000lbs of cappings off 600 producing hives

[soupcan]

Sorry Mike. Left it all at Dadant's in exchange for several 100 deeps.
We like to add at least a 100 new ones a year with frames & plastic cell.
He repaired several 100 last year & we both decided that it would not be to hard to to find a couple hundred to change out.
That never seems to end.
I will say in looking at the dates on some of the shells, many have been in service for up to 20 years and many only need a coat of paint.
Got to love that copper napthate.