# Some thoughts on working with bees wax.



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Assuming you have a supply of bees wax on hand you need to keep in mind it is a fire hazard if not handled properly. It leaves a residue on about every thing it comes in contact with such as pots and pans so is best to have that equipment just for wax work.

Capping wax even drained several months still has honey in it, a lot more than you may think.
Here in the north where it gets cold by the end of extracting time I use a wax melter I bought at a auction sale cheap to melt the wax and seperate the honey from it.










I run it into a 5 gallon pail to allow the wax to rise to the top and become solid. Once I made the mistake of filling the pail to the top. I had to cut the pail off the wax.










I know better now and only fill the pail a quarter full.

Burr comb and recycled bees wax Also has some honey in it and more than a bity of proplis. It is being collected during the spring into late summer so the solar melter works very well to melt it down and seprate the honey.
My solar melter is a home built thing I knocked out in a couple of days with out a patteran. It holds 30 deep frames on a rack plus loose burr comb can be placed along the sides of the rack.
A catch pail with window screen is placed below the run off area to catch the melted wax and screen out the big chunks.




























The end results with both methods are big chunks of wax weighing about 5 to 6 pounds each for latter working.

 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Once I have all the honey and big chunks out of the wax I store it for a bit. Soon winters coldest days arrive so I can stoke up the wood furnace to hopping hot. A large kettle of water is set on the furnace which serves two porposses. One it steams moisture in the air so the house isn't so dry, second it provides the base for my double boiler the only safe way to melt wax for pouring into molds IMOP.

I place a second kettle in the first water filled one, which has a chunk of wax that weighs between 5 and 6 pounds (over time you get good at judgeing the weight/amount.). while that melts down I set up my jig which is a wooden form to hold my silicone bread pans so they don't bulge, it also holds the strainer towel I use to strain it finer. 

With out the form for the mold.










That strainer is paper towel, I use them as quick fire starters and sell them to hunters to carry in case of emergency fire is needed.
Once the wax sets up in the mold I remove them and weigh them on postal scales for the proper 3 pound weight. As I said after a while you get to know the weight by looking at it.

When finished I may have a 1 or 2 pound chunk left. It is saved for next years crop.

I ship in USPS flat rate boxes, they hold 4 blocks of wax at a total of 12 pounds. Cost to ship last spring was $10.70 USA only Canada is extra.. Takes 3 to 4 days max for the customer to recieve th wax.
I now tell the buyer to tell their other half they have bought the wax so they can order extra for them.
One fellow bought 12 pounds of bright yellow capping wax from me. He had to go out of town for a week and a half for his job. When he returned he had no wax left for his use. His wife had opened the package she didn't know any thing about and found this beautiful honey smelling wax. She propply started useing it to make candles for the arrangements on the tables at their daughters wedding.

He was lucky I had a pound and a half left and found a fellow bee keeper I got 10 pounds from.

 Al


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## JRHILLS (Oct 27, 2010)

Now THAT'S a comprehensive look at wax. Sounds like you could raise the price if it sells out so fast!

JRH


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## canadiangirl (Jul 25, 2004)

Thanks for the peek into your wax processing. 
Have you thought about using milk filters for straining? I use them for almost everything now, they flow very fast and filter out extremely small particles.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Yes I have a milk strainer but I use it for straining honey. wish I had a sorsce for the regular milk filters. I've also used coffee filters but the paper towels work real well and are sellable.

Yes probably could raise my prices. Every hear the story about greed killing the golden goose?
A friend charges $16.00 a pound for his wax. Can't sell a bit in bulk. He has to make candles to make that kind of money which isn't a real good bussness in todays economy.

 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Been thinking on the double boiler part. I stated it is the safest way to melt wax. After the solar melter the very safest and the true wax melter, then the double boiler really is the safest method.

Double boilers can be bought at stores that sell kitchen tools. Problem is they are all small about 2 quarts or less. Best to go to some place like Goodwill or the Salvation Army resale stores and buy kettles that you can match up to make a good sized double boiler set up. Also since they were bought at a resale shop you don't feel so bad about the wax residue rendering it useless for any thing else.

 Al


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

Al, if you're needing milk filters, I can hook you up. Is there a certain size you're looking for? Check out any local farm supply stores and milk equipment suppliers, too.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

The joke in this area is the local farm store would be a real good place to open a farm store instead of the horse store.

I'll have to measure my strainer. Used to have the Kendell number for the filters that fit it. since most of the dairy farms in this area now use inline filters in their pipe systems the old strainer pads can't even be bought from the milk buyers.

 Al


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