Melting old comb

[Jacar]

I have a solar wax melter. I recently cleaned some old brood box frames that got infested with wax moth. I pulled the comb out from the frames in one piece and put them in the solar box.

After a couple of days the whole combs are still together with not much wax melted. They are very dark, and have a papery consistency to them. Anybody have any experience with this?

Thanks....Jack

[BeeMaster2]

The older the comb, the less wax it seems to have in it. It might be that it absorbs a lot of the wax that is in there and it is harder to get any out of the comb.
I have had the same experience trying to melt the wax out of the dark comb by heating it up with a double boiler.
Jim

[cao]

I melted some old comb last year and had the same experience.  I assume that the wax is still there but, I think the old cocoons act like a wick holding some of the wax.  That stuff sure does burn well.

[Michael Bush]

The cocoons soak up more wax that there is in the comb sometimes.

[Eric Bosworth]

The cocoons soak up more wax that there is in the comb sometimes.

The best solution I have found to this is melt the wax, strain it through cheese cloth and then wrap the cocoons in the cheese cloth and wring it out. That will get as much wax as possible out of the cocoons. Just don't burn your hands.

[Jacar]

Thanks for the replies. That explains it.

[rober]

I use old dark comb to help start the fire in my woodstove. same goes for the residual wax & mess left on my wax filters. for what you get out of it it's not worth the effort to process it. I only save newer wax.

[Eric Bosworth]

I use old dark comb to help start the fire in my woodstove. same goes for the residual wax & mess left on my wax filters. for what you get out of it it's not worth the effort to process it. I only save newer wax.

I use the cheesecloth filter for that purpose. It works like a champ!

Even wax from last year if it was in the brood nest can be pretty nasty to process. It all depends on the amount of wax you have. If you are processing a lot of wax then it probably is worth your while... On the other hand if you are planning to use wax for hive dipping then probably the old filthy wax would be fine without too much work.