You can try grain alcohol, sometimes that works for me.

You can wait until it's very cold (below freezing) and then scrape and pop the stuff off.

Krud-Kutter supposedly also works, though I'm not sure I'd want it on anything the bees will be feeding from in the future. It can be hard to rinse off completely.

Wax, of course, melts in very hot water. But do not wash/rinse waxed items off in your sink. The wax will melt, go down the drain, cool down and solidify into the toughest drain blocking blob you'll ever have. You'll need physically remove it - none of the regular drain-cleaning products will dissolve it.

Better not to ask me how I know this. I am still in the doghouse over doing this my first year. Whenever a drain gets a little slow in my house nowadays, my husband starts to give me the side-eye.

Nancy

 

Sodium Hydroxide-based oven cleaners will dissolve propolis ok - but whether you would want to use this on your feeder .... ? I'd agree with a spell in the freezer followed by a quick scrape.

Wax will melt and lift-off with boiling water - but then solidify again when the water cools ... so be very careful where it will end up, as domestic harmony is always at risk when cleaning beekeeping kit.
LJ

 

I find a heat gun and small putty knife works well for removing or "sculpting" wax. e.g. I made full-size wooden hive top feeders and sealed the interior seams with dribbled wax. Followed that up with the heat gun going down the seams to make the wax uniform and guarantee it went where it was supposed to go.

 

take a pressure washer to everything. I have stripped paint with a pressure washer, so I think it will remove wax and propolis.

 

They're only going to redecorate the feeders and any other equipment again next year so I go for getting the "chunky" stuff off with a hive tool and try to watch how/where I store the equipment so as not to help spread the propolis.


I do like Nancy's suggestion of grain alcohol but my interpretation would be to put it in a little Coke while you clean