[roberts0909]

This wouldn't be urgent, but I've borrowed my club's harvesting equipment and must return it soon.

I have fra.es from my super mostly drained after spinning, but I'm not sure how to get the wax. Do I cut it out and let it drain for a day or more? Can I melt it off with my small torch?

Thanks so much in advance!

 

[roberts0909]

Actually, scratch my idea of using a torch. Wax burns, doh! 😆

 

[dr4ngas]

stick the frame back on the hive and let the bees clean the frame. You can leave them on for the bees to refill or store the frames for next year. Its your choice, look for a local beekeeper to help figure out how to store in your location.

 

[Steve in PA]

Most of the time you leave the wrecked honeycomb on the frame. The bees will repair it and refill it during your next flow or next season. The wax you harvest would be the cappings wax left over from opening the cells by whatever method you used. You will also have a small amount of wax left after straining your honey.

 

[roberts0909]

Thanks all for the quick responses. I didn't realize they could make use of the mess that is left, so I'll put it back for them.

 

[Apis Natural]

if you smashed the some of the comb with the cappings knife, scrape it off leaving the good cells, the bees will rebuild.

 

[Fivej]

How exactly did you harvest the honey? Generally speaking, you cut or scrape the wax caps off of the cells in a container of some sort and then spin the frames in the extractor to get the honey out. What wax are you trying to get out? The wax foundation is good to go back in the hive for more nectar, or for clean up. You don't want to harvest the wax in the frames. The bees took a long time building it out. If you mean the wax caps you cut off, let them drain in your container to get more honey. It will drain better if you put them in a mesh bag elevated over a bucket. You can get 5gal bags at most paint/hardware stores. J

 

[roberts0909]

I used a scraper followed by inserting 4 frames into a typical centrifugal (spinning) extractor. They are pretty chewed up. I'm heading down there now and I'll get some picks, but I suspect that not much is useful to the bees if they need cells that are more or less intact.

*This was my very first attempt and I likely made more of a mess of it than necessary.*

 

[JWPalmer]

The bees are very adept at removing the damaged portions of the cells and reusing the wax to repair and rebuild the damaged areas. Stick the frames back on as they are and leave them for a week. I think you will be suprised at how good they look when you come back.

 

[Fivej]

It takes some practice, but the goal is to just get the cappings off, or cut the cappings evenly with a knife using the frame as a guide to get it as even as possible. When the cells are not all of the way out for the knife, use your uncapper/scratcher to get the cappings off. You want to use a flicking motion as you go along. I suspect you used a scratching motion which I did the first time too. They really should re-name the scratcher because that's not what you want to do. As JW said, they will fix it up for you. J

 

[roberts0909]

Thanks all!

 

[roddo27846]

I used a scraper followed by inserting 4 frames into a typical centrifugal (spinning) extractor. They are pretty chewed up. I'm heading down there now and I'll get some picks, but I suspect that not much is useful to the bees if they need cells that are more or less intact.

*This was my very first attempt and I likely made more of a mess of it than necessary.*

They'll fix pretty much anything.