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Mind Your Own…

Posted on April 5, 2017April 4, 2017

One thing I’ve been working on for the past few weeks, is a simple way to get clean bee’s wax from my old, discarded, dirty bee combs.

Bee combs go through stages… from pristine white (brand new) honey comb to nasty dirty brood comb.

combThese pieces are left from various cleanups I’ve done in my hives.  To salvage my bee’s wax, I created a tiny solar melter.  Since I didn’t have much, I didn’t think I needed a big melter.  I’ll go bigger next time, just to save some labor on my part!

The solar melter is simply an old tin foil brownie pan that I cut a one inch slot out of its side and bent down.  I angled it in a cardboard box by building up with some foam pieces I had on hand.  I then duct taped a piece of window screen across the slot to catch the trash from the wax.  Finally, below the bent tin foil opening, I placed a mini loaf pan to catch the clean wax.

melterThe edges of the box are cut at an angle as well, and I laid a piece of glass over the top.  When the sun has been out, it’s worked delightfully!

The wax needed to be prepared.

beeswaxSome wax simply crumbled into my hand when squeezed.  Other pieces I had to apply some pressure to!

dirty waxYou can see the yukky left behind junk that needs to be washed out, so after crumbling it all into a bucket, I simply ran water over it, agitated it, and rewashed it.  After four times, the water was fairly clear, so I drained the wax and let it dry a bit before putting it into my melter.

beeswaxHere’s an overhead shot showing the “trash” left behind, and the golden wax dripping down into my loaf pan!  (window glass removed so you could see!)  It worked!

I managed to get 3/4″ loaf from this entire batch of wax… and it is now cut into small squares to be used in my pysanky class on Thursday!

Now I can say, I do know how to mind my own bee’s wax!

 

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8 thoughts on “Mind Your Own…”

  1. Heather Haliwell says:
    April 27, 2019 at 8:32 AM

    How does one even begin to start reading bees? I am interested in possibly doing so but haven’t the first idea of where to begin.

    Reply
    1. Carol says:
      April 27, 2019 at 11:13 PM

      There are many beekeeping clubs… I started with books and youtube. If you’re interested in top bar hives (and I was because you can make your own), then you might check out backyardhive.com. I was fascinated by his unique methods. While my bees were more failure than success, I really enjoyed the process. Best of luck!

      Reply
  2. Sylvia says:
    April 6, 2017 at 6:11 AM

    Wow!

    Reply
  3. Holly says:
    April 5, 2017 at 9:41 AM

    Good job! “Waste not, want not”, as my momma would say.

    Reply
  4. Kris H says:
    April 5, 2017 at 8:20 AM

    Ingenious! And of course that’s a great use for the wax too. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Marilyn O says:
    April 5, 2017 at 7:19 AM

    What a fantastic invention!! I’d say it’s the “bee’s knees” – 🙂

    Reply
    1. Carol says:
      April 5, 2017 at 10:46 PM

      Aha! I like it!

      Reply
  6. Paul Tomlinson says:
    April 5, 2017 at 6:46 AM

    I like your solar-melter, can’t live with out duct tape!

    Reply

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Carol, Wyoming rancher

Since 2008, I’ve kept this photographic journal of life on our working Wyoming ranch.  I share ranch work, my family, crafts and DIY, my English Shepherds, Bravo and Indy, and a love for this land.  Enjoy this red dirt country!

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