# Beeswax the hows and wheres...



## canadiangirl (Jul 25, 2004)

Aside from honey, I am really interested in harvesting wax from my bees. I have a soap business and really want to use this to add to my product line in the future. Is the bulk of the wax harvested from cappings? My bees (new nuc I purchased in May) spent all summer laying wax and did 2 deeps, If I did harvest the honey this year, (which I didn't) I don't think I would scrape the wax off of the frames and make them do it again the following year would I? So how does one get a quantity of wax and also maybe the question should be...how may hives to get 10 pounds of wax a year?


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

We use the cappings for candles, soaps and salves. The only time we scrape all the wax from frames is when we are retireing the frames and foundation (the wax is then VERY hard to get cleaned up to that lovely golden color unless treated with chemicals, or colored)
We have 6 colonies and got nowhere near ten pounds of cappings.


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## JRHILLS (Oct 27, 2010)

Raising bees for the wax would be like raising chickens for the feathers.


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## cathleenc (Aug 16, 2007)

I'll post a fully amateur point of view - to me, the honey and the wax are equally important for my household. 

We do not own an extractor - when it comes to bringing honey in I try to 'under harvest' so that the bees make it through the winter (more important to us than honey). To harvest the honey I use a large soup spoon and scrape off all the wax, down to the foundation, along with the honey - and then replace the foundation after having returned the emptied frame to the hive and the girls having gleaned it clean.

To me, my beekeeping goals are: sustainable colony, honey, clean wax. I prefer having the bees remake the cells each year (on the frames we'll be harvesting) and always have brand new wax and under harvest to help make that do-able for the girls.

We got 4.25 gallons of honey and about 12 oz of cleaned nice wax this year from 2-3 yr old hives. All for personal consumption. And I made a really nice honey-beeswax lip balm last night that was just so fun to make from our own hives' products.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Your best bet is to find a bee keeper that doesn't yet have a use for their bees wax and buy it from them.
Buying bees wax from bee keepers that either have a use for it or know the value they recive for it is costly.

Our capping wax I sell for $5.00 a pound plus the cost of shipping, Minium order is 3 pounds as that is the size of blocks mine is molded in. I normall sell all I have in a half hour of posting it for sale.

eight three pound blocks of capping wax.









We get a brown wax from hive scrapings of burr comb, removels we do from buildings, trees and such and recycled old frames.
I was selling it for less than the capping wax but found out some of the buyers didn't care about the color so it sells for $5.00 a pound plus the shipping also.





















I guesstmate you get a half pound of capping wax per colony useing 8 and 9 frames in the honey supers. So 20 colonies woud get you 10 pounds of capping wax a year. Running all 8 frame honey supers will get you more wax per super.

Our wax goes on sale in March.

 Al


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## canadiangirl (Jul 25, 2004)

Your wax looks beautiful Al. I wish this was a scratch and sniff monitor.


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## Eyes Wide Open (Oct 14, 2010)

alleyyooper said:


> Your best bet is to find a bee keeper that doesn't yet have a use for their bees wax and buy it from them.
> Buying bees wax from bee keepers that either have a use for it or know the value they recive for it is costly.


I agree. Just yesterday someone offered to GIVE me their wax. But I think she immediately regretted it and I let her off the hook of course. The point being is that not everyone values wax.


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## cathleenc (Aug 16, 2007)

I'd consider what I wanted to do with the wax and then ask questions, if appropriate, related to the product I wanted to make. For us it's important to have chemical-free wax, particularly if going into skin care products and essential if making lip balm, for example. For candles I don't think I'd be concerned. It's all a personal choice and a personal preference but one most people don't consider when buying bees wax, imo. (and I would avoid chinese beeswax completely if making cosmetics!)


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

a pound of wax holds 21 pounds of honey ,,, it takes about 8 pounds of honey to make a pound of wax ,,,, so they ( bees ) have to make 290 pounds of honey for you to get 10 pounds of wax,,


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