Recently I switched to going foundationless. I had hoped to still use my extractor but without the foundation the combs are just too fragile and they blow apart. However, I am enjoying the convenience of foundationless beekeeping and my bees seem to like designing and building their own comb, so I will just need to modify my harvesting method to become crush-n-strain instead of extraction. What I've tried is 1) cutting the comb from my frames, 2) mashing it up 3) pouring this wax/honey mass into a strainer atop 5-gallon buckets. This gets about 50-60% of the honey, however how do I collect the remaining 50%, or don't you? Maybe crush-n-strain results in a lot of waste. Last night I took the football size mass of wax/honey that hadn't drained through my strainer and I put it into my oven, the strainer right on top of a metal pot. My oven's minimum is 170, which apparently was too hot because both honey and wax dripped through.
I would appreciate any thoughts or experiences on how to BEST separate honey from wax after that initial pass through.
I would appreciate any thoughts or experiences on how to BEST separate honey from wax after that initial pass through.