storing wax

VTnewbee · September 21, 2009, 08:22:37 AM

I did my harvest this weekend and all went great! But I didn't have time to do anything with the wax yet. I did the crush and strain so I have a lot of wax! I'd like to process it/make candles and whatever other cool things that can be made with it, but I'm not going to have time to mess with it for a few weeks. For now I have it stored in gallon freezer bags, some very wet with honey, and some dry burr comb, pretty well separated. The bags are just sitting on my counter right now. Is that an okay way to store that until I'm ready to do something with it, or should I be storing it differently?

danno · September 21, 2009, 08:54:58 AM

I set mine out in tubs a a couple of day and let them rob it out. You will be amased at how much weight it will lose. If your going to make candles you have to wash the honey out or they wont stay lit. I have a turkey deep frier pot the I fill half full of water and wax and boil. It will rise above the water and harden when cooled.

alflyguy · September 21, 2009, 05:55:49 PM

If you don't have time to work with it now just drop it in the freezer. It will kill any SHB or other pests and will keep very well.

Shawn · September 21, 2009, 06:25:43 PM

So do you wash the wax in warm, cold, or hot water before boiling? How clean do you need to get the wax? At what point do you strain teh wax to clean it?

hardwood · September 21, 2009, 06:43:36 PM

I use a system much the same as danno, let the bees at it for a while (I put mine in a strainer over a deep sheet pan and set it across the yard from the hives to limit robbing) and then throw it in the solar wax melter. The hot water trick works well too because the excess honey is diluted into the water and the wax floats to the top. Most of the gunk (cocoons etc) drifts to the bottom. You may end up with a little junk on the top or, most likely the bottom of the cake of wax, but that can easily be scraped off when hard.

Let us know what you come up with!
Scott

VTnewbee · September 22, 2009, 07:59:04 AM

Thank you everyone for all your good tips! I'll probably use them all. Let the bees clean it up, then throw it in the freezer, then boil it! :-D

Kathyp · September 22, 2009, 11:09:04 AM

if you boil it, don't boil it hard!!!!! there is nothing worse to clean up than a wax boil-over. especially if you do it on the stove.

i use the double boiler. water in bottom, wax in cheese cloth on top. same idea as boiling, but helps strain out some of the big stuff from the start.

cool it slowly so it doesn't crack. you may have to do it more than once.

it smells great!!

Shawn · September 22, 2009, 07:16:22 PM

Well I gave it a try today and now I see why you need the cheese cloth. I started off by rinsing in cold water and to me it looked pretty clean. I turned on the turkey fryer and got the water boiling. I used another pan inside and started off with just wax. It started to melt and boy oh boy did the debris come to the surface. I dont have any cheese cloth so I poured water in with the wax hoping that would help with the seperation but Nope. Ill have to melt it down later when I have the right equip.

Another thing I noticed is the bees were all over us and the fryer when boiling. Is it the smell? They started off few between but by the time we were done they were everywhere.

TwoBigCats · September 22, 2009, 07:34:45 PM

i'm a 2nd year beek and have harvested 2x using the mash method. here's the approach i use for recovering / storing beeswax.

when i'm convinced i've harvested as much honey as i'm likely to get from my mash, i put the mash in a large pot and fill it with warm water. using my hands, i stir it to get the best rinsing action i can, then let it set for a bit, repeating as necessary to get fairly clear water rinsing out.

then i hand pick the unwelcome bits out and when it appears i've got "good wax", i put the pot of picked comb wax and water on the stove and bring it up close to a boil, then let it melt. i then take it off the heat and let it cool until the wax hardens (in to a plate shaped form). the top of the wax form usually has foamy wax that has hardened, the under side usually has bits of "stuff" that didn't work to the top.

i take that wax form, break it in to pieces and put them in a small pot sitting in another pot - basically, a double boiler set-up. (i bought these stainless steel pots / lids @ a yard sale for $5 this year and they're only used for wax.) when the wax is melted, i pour it in to a cardboard qt milk carton and let it cool, then tear the cardboard off. on the top of the melted wax block is usually a bit of froth / bits and on the bottom will be a bit of darker stuff / bits - i trim both off and (sitting in my office now), i have beautiful (and lightly fragrant) blocks of pure beeswax. i do all of this inside the house and have never had a bee nearby. (though it sounds like i could be wasting an opportunity to let the bees recover some of their own honey... i'll have to think about doing that)

when we've completed making our pomegranate jelly this fall, we'll make our first batches of twobigcats lipschitz lip balm :)

cover me, i'm going in! (hope this helps)

Shawn · September 23, 2009, 11:47:43 AM

So everyone has said they get "white wax" but after melting mine down I had yellow wax. Is that from the honey that was left over?

Kathyp · September 23, 2009, 12:10:43 PM

sean, you can poor that wax through a thin towel, pantyhose if it's not tooo hot, i like the cheese cloth or = just because it soaks up less wax and i lose less. i don't get white wax. if the wax is older, it's going to be darker no matter what you do. if your temp is to hot, i hear that darkens it also. new wax is lighter.