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Melting drone comb with larva, will it stink up the wax?

3K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  sjj 
#1 ·
Tried a foundationless experiment this year and as a result I have two frames of drone comb I pulled from one hive, as that seemed to be all they wanted to draw. Both are full of larva and frozen. I hate to waste the wax, and I'd like to put it in my solar melter. I've never melted wax with larva in it, but I really don't want to go thru and tweezer out each cell. If I melt it, will the larva stink up the wax? Seems like heating up all that protein would create a smell quickly. Has anyone done this and what were the results?
 
#2 ·
you could put it back in the hive above excluder and let them clean it out. then have them fill it with honey.

not sure what you were expecting putting foundationless into a hive of foundation during spring build up season when they need drones.

in contrast, all of my frames are foundationless. I put a blank frame in the middle of the brood nest and they have it drawn out in perfect straight worker comb with maybe some drones on the edges. liked it so much i moved that one over, put another blank one in and moved an outside frame to the upper box.
 
#4 ·
Just a thought about why they pulled drone comb.

If you drop a foundationless frame into a hive full of foundation, it rarely works out well for the beekeeper. The bees have been restricted to building worker cells so much, the first chance they get to build drone comb they will. If you wanted to continue in your experiment, you could move the drone comb frames to the outside of your hive. They will likely store honey in those cells, but their urge to build drone comb is partially met.


When melting it, it stinks up the room pretty bad. The wax smells fine, but is on the darker side of the yellow scale.
 
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