As the beekeeping season comes to a close and my hives need less of my time, I’m confronted with the jars and bags and racks and bowls of beeswax all over my house patiently awaiting my attention. There are a million methods for all things beekeeping out there but I’d like to share this very simple method of rendering beeswax that will take you from sticky mess to wonderfully fragrant disks of clean beeswax ready for your crafts and beauty products while costing very little of your time and precious energy. And best of all, there’s no waste and your bees will actually benefit from it!
You will need:
1. Some type of plastic or metal grate that will fit inside of an empty super. It should have spaces big enough for a bee to crawl through but not big enough for chunks of wax to fall through.
2. A cheap double boiler (I found two pots for $2.00 at the thrift store that worked perfectly)
3. A small plastic, metal or glass container (that you don’t need for anything else) to pour the melted wax into
4. A cheesecloth and rubber band
Note: All of this equipment should be things you don’t care about or use for anything else as beeswax is pretty much impossible to clean off. You’re going to want this equipment to be used exclusively for wax processing (hence the thrift store recommendation).
Part One:
1. Grab all of your wax capping and other still sticky wax, your grate and your empty super, take them outside to your beehive (I like to suit up for this) and remove the outer cover on your hive.
2. Make sure that your inner cover is the kind that has a hole in the top. Place empty super on top of inner cover and then place the grate on top of inner cover inside the empty super. Now spread your sticky wax out on top of the grate. Place your outer cover back on top to close up and if you have a bee escape hole in your inner cover it’s probably a good idea to plug it up with grass cork or something else to discourage robbers.
If you don’t have an inner cover with a hole in it, you can simply remove it as well and set the grate and super directly on top of the frames and then place your inner cover on top of the empty super followed by your outer cover.
Congratulations, you’re half way done. When you come back in a day or two, you will find that the bees have completely cleaned every scrap of honey off of the wax and left you with a beeswax sculpture that’s pretty amazing. The absolute best part though is that the bees have saved you a lot of time cleaning all of that honey and instead of it going down the drain, they get to add it back to their winter stores.
Part Two:
1. In a double boiler on low heat add first about an inch of water and then start adding your wax. As the wax melts down you will be able to add more. You might be able to get it all in there or you may have to do more than one batch. You don’t want it more than 3/4 full of hot wax. DO NOT WALK AWAY! Wax is extremely flammable and it also makes a very difficult mess to clean if it boils over.
2. When the wax is completely melted you will see that there is still quite a bit of debris that you want to get rid of so just remove it from the heat and let it cool a bit but not to the point that it starts to solidify again.
Fold your cheesecloth a couple of times so that it’s about 4 layers thick and place it over the top of whatever container you’re going to let the wax solidify in. You can even use one of those round, plastic yogurt containers. Secure the cheesecloth with a rubber band making sure it’s sagging just a bit in the middle.
Pour your slightly cooled wax through the cheesecloth into the container, water and all and leave it until the wax is solid and cool.
Use a butter knife or something similar to get your wax disk or block out of its container leaving the water behind. When it’s completely dry, store in an airtight container or plastic bag.
Excerpted from MOTHER EARTH NEWS by Lindsay Williamson
9 Comments
I knew a beekeeper with 70 years of experience. He used an old crock pot to melt his wax. He set it to low and just let it do it’s work. When it all melted, he would just turn the crock pot off and let it cool on its own. As it cooled, it would contract and draw away from the sides of the pot and would just fall out. He said that most of the trash and such would float after it melted and he would skim it off. Just a suggestion.
Yes. I bought a crockpot at a thrift store for beeswax. I put an inch of water on the pot and rubber Band a piece of Old t-shirt across the top. The comb chunks are rinsed in a colander then placed on a double layer of paper towel on top of the t shirt. Put on the lid, turn on the pot and in a couple hours it’s done. The debris are all in the paper towel. I roll the debris filled paper towel up while still warm and keep for firestarters. No waste. The paper towel also keeps the tshirt clean so it can be reused many times. Make sure to take the t shirt off while still warm or it sticks to the pot and you have to heat again for a few minutes to release. The wax comes out perfectly clean every time
This is exactly how I do this, but I use a fine mesh strainer instead of cheese cloth. Catches the unwanted bits, but you can run boiling water through it backwards, in the yard somewhere that you don’t care if the beeswax goes, and clean it for use again later. Cheesecloth you just throw out when done. Note to not pour your wax into a container where the opening is smaller than the base (ie a mason jar) or you will never get it out of there. I often use cleaned yogurt containers. Wider at the top. Pop into fridge or freezer to contract wax chunk for easy removal.
simple process, I like it.
Boy you just answered my question I’ve been wondering, for the
Past few days. its simple and quick, just the way I like. Oh yeah and cheap.
Thanks I’ll have to try it tight away.
I like the warning about taking the tee-shirt off first… brought a mental image of someone running around screaming for help!
Regarding part one (I love the idea of the bees cleaning and reaping the benefits of getting their honey back) Can anyone think of a reason you actually need the grate? Couldn’t you simply put the wax on the inner cover (or even tin foil on the inner cover) just not blocking the hole?
I bought a cheap silicone baking dish online that fits in my solar oven. Add a little water and let the sun do the work. Since the silicone is so flexible, It easily pops out after it cools.
Is there any way to bring the focus to let lieve and live let iwth allowing mother nature to just be, and and allow it to flourish,
free of our meddling and “ingeniuous” excuse the facetiousness, intrusion? Also with soup vegetarian, instead of
vlees hormones and poison for us borrowers?
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