# what do I do with the burr comb?



## Cheryl aka JM

So I installed the bees, 3 hives, a week ago. Released the queens last friday. Today I went back to check for brood and to do the second dose of terramycin powder. I couldn't find the queens, but I'm not panicing...I don't really know what I'm looking for so I shouldn't be suprised I can't find it. What I did find was about half of each box (using medium supers as hive bodys) was being worked and there was quite a bit of burr comb in the hive that only had 9 frames. The others had some, but that one had a lot. So I carefully plucked out the burr comb with my hive tool...

and....

Well and now WHAT?
Seems a shame to throw it away. Quite a bit of wax, some glistening "Honey"? and some yellow pollen. Doesn't look like it will fit in the tiny space between the inner and out covers. I thought about leaving it on the ground in front of the hives but that felt like inviting predators.....

What do I do with all that pretty burr comb?


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## tom j

save it ,, when you want melt it use it for what ever you like ,, I use it for lip balm ,, foot softener ,, and a few other things ,,, if you use platice foundation ,, coat were they don't bui;d comb ,, they don't build if its not waxed


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## alleyyooper

When you melt it be safe and use a double boiler or an *OLD*slow cooker you don't want to use any longer for food. As tom said make lip balms, skin creams, water proofing for shoes, Lube for a sticky drawer, and about 1001 other uses.
search uses for bees wax and you'll find that 1001 uses list.

Don't bee looking for the queen on your inspections look for those tiny white eggs stuck in the bottom of the cells (lots can't see those either.) and the white milky looking stuff and larva in the bottom of the cells. finding the queen will come with experince.


 Al


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## Elsbet

DH brought a small piece of burrcomb in from our hive. He was excited and was going to show some of his buddies at work. Went to get it, and it was gone. In our house, when something is missing, you ask our daughter- she always knows what happened to it, and has been like that since she was a toddler.
So DH asks her. "Um, I chewed it up, Dad, like gum." So much for show and tell!
*laughs.*


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## mare

plenty more where that came from. reminds me of last year (first year) i couldnt wait to bring it in and show it to everybody. aint bee-keeping fun???


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## Cheryl aka JM

Thanks for the advice everyone. I went ahead and melted it down in some cheesecloth in some lemon water in the microwave (read to do that online), then when cool I fished out out the wax round that had floated to the top and I have it in the freezer for whatever later.

I went back into the three hives yesterday for the last terramycin treatment. There is brood!!! It took a minute staring at the cells to see the fat little grubs in them, but once I could see them it was kind of like when you finally make out one of those optical illusion things....it went from looking like kind of fuzzy comb to clearly being little fat curled grubs in all the cells! All three hives have them! Woo Hoo!

I am using medium supers as the hive body and I had prepared a new super to on to all three hives as they looked about half full last week. Well this week they still looked just about half full, but I went ahead and added the next super/hive body anyway since I had them ready and wanted to be sure they had enough room. Added the terramycin, refilled the sugar/fumidil syrup (they are really going through it fast now!) and hopefully I'll convince myself to leave them alone and do what they need to do now!

Beekeeping meeting in town tonight gonna show us how to use the extractor. I know I'm a LONG way from that but I'm still excited to learn it!

Woo Hoo! Brood!


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## tom j

learn what you can ,, learn when you can , learn were you can ., almost any way ,, There are ways that I would not like or want to learn if I can help it


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## alleyyooper

:hysterical::hysterical: Learn how to use an extractor???

On cap the frames as many as the extractor will hold(72) turn on the power switch lower the drive wheel down onto the driven wheel and uncap some more frames while waiting for it to finish. 
Or uncap two frames put them into the extractor and turn the crank, slow at first and faster at the end. Take frame out, turn them and repete.

Turn on the honey pump to put it in holding tanks, in case of the hand crank extractor, or drain into the sieve into the 5 gallon pail.















































Sorry I just find it funny that some one could talk more than 15 minutes on the use of an extractor.

Fellow club member give an hour long talk at Bee Conferance every year titled From hive to jar.

He covers many of the different ways to pull honey supers off colonies and bring the least amount of workers to the honey house/extraction site. He covers the different ways to store the frames and keep them clean while waiting for their turn in the extractor, covers the crush and strain method for those who don't have an extractor and reminds them that if they are a SEMBA member they have honey house privlages. 
He covers the straining of honey and bottleing it and keeping it clean. 
Of course he grosses every one of the new bees out every year with the pound honey jar full of honey and a mouse.

 Al


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## Cheryl aka JM

a mouse?!
Whats with the mouse?

We spent a lot of time on it last night, but they were teaching a bunch of us who didn't know what we were doing to use the extractor that belongs to the madison county beekeepers club. We can borrow it as members and it did have a few quarks. Like the trying to dance accross the room and wobbling. It was fun, and we all got to taste some of the honey. YYUUMM! Carol actually grossed out the guy showing it to us. One of the ladies was chewing on some of the cappings and the guy said that was the yucky stuff cuz it was where the bee's walked. Carol looked at him asking "So bee feet are yucky but bee barf is yummy?" The look on his face was classic! He had never thought of it that way before!

It was fun, and there were a lot of us there just learning. It was really nice of them to let us all get in there and play with their stuff and their bee barf!


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## CarolT

And they did cover a lot more than just the extractor. They had the minutes read, talked about all the upcoming events, etc. 

Sorry, I just don't see how the capping is _that_ much dirtier than the regular comb. And if people use it for lip balm...


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## AverageJo

Thanks for the belly laugh everyone!!! Yup. Bee spit is yummo!! Bee cappings have been walked on by dirty feet with propolis and perhaps bee poop on them. The rest of the wax must be the good stuff.... oh, wait... that was the womb for the babies.... and has leftover lining in it. Of course the lining doesn't melt down and can be filtered off....

Maybe they're talking about virgin honey comb only... without the cappings??? 

Sigh... love this group. great sense of humor...


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## alleyyooper

Mikes, mouse in the jar of honey gets every ones attention so they listen when he starts talking about keeping the honey clean and that includes washing the jars, bottles and pails and lids before putting honey in them.

Many of the bee keepers I know drain the cappings before they melt them down. Some have mesh bags they put the cappings in which hang in the extractor and are spun to get the honey out. We strain that honey as it runs out of the capping tub then is filtered as it comes out of the holding tanks into jars & pails.

In reallity the foragers bring in the nectar and the house bees take it from them place it in cells which are then capped when the moisture content is to their liking.
So the dirty feet don't move about on the cappings for the most part.

 Al


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## tom j

any one that has seen how food is handled much less processed in the us ,, now think of China what laws to handle , process the food there ,, and then its shipped here and served to them ,, so to me honey is cleaner then any food out there ,, and I'll take there dirty feet with propolis and perhaps bee poop on them to the worker that goes to the bathroom and does not wash his hands ,,


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## alleyyooper

"I'll take there dirty feet with propolis and perhaps bee poop on them to the worker that goes to the bathroom and *does not wash his hands*" 

It isn't always his hands that don't get washed. I'd be rich if I got $25.00 every time Kare comes out of a public bath room and tells me about the nasty stuff the women leave for others to find.

 Al


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## tom j

that is what I was meant but tryed to say it nice


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