Harvesting wax filled with drone comb?

Started by Dimmsdale, June 10, 2012, 01:54:22 PM

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Dimmsdale

Every once and a while the girls will draw out an awkward section of comb in the hive.  Its usually filled with drone brood.  I cut it out to keep the combs neat.  My question is, what is the best way to still be able to harvest the wax?  I always save all of my burr comb and extra wax to melt it down.  Should comb with brood in it be treated any differently?  Other than physically removing all the brood, how does one harvest this wax?  Just store and melt down and filter?  Thanks for the advice!


Kathyp

The people the people are the rightful masters of both congresses and courts not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it.

Abraham  Lincoln
Speech in Kansas, December 1859

AndrewT

I keep an empty hive by my garden, which is more than 100 feet from my hives.  In that hive, I put all of the frames after cutting out honeycomb to crush and strain, as well as all the wax strained out of the honey (this I put in several shallow trays that stack on each other, kind of like a food dehydrator), and all other comb that I take out of the hive.  That way, the bees, wasps, ants, and even the occasional short-tailed shrew clean out all the honey and most of the brood that may be in with the wax and comb.

You do have to be careful not to put the strained wax too deep in the trays, I've found, or you'll have a lot of dead bees that get stuck and die.  And whatever you do, don't put something like that anywhere near an active hive or you'll incite robbing.

After awhile, the sticky frames will be clean, and the wax will be mostly clean, with a few dead bees and wasps to pick out.
Give a man a fish and he will have dinner.  Teach a man to fish and he will be late for dinner.