Beeswax, step by step
Interactive lesson: from wax scraps in the apiary to a clean block — fire safety, the solar extractor, boiling in a bag, cleaning, casting and wax around the house.
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The whole lesson as text
1. Wax scraps
For each kilogram of wax, bees use roughly 6–10 kg of honey, so no wax scrap is thrown away.
- A bucket in the apiary — Keep a bucket with a lid in the apiary. All wax scraps go into it: brace comb, burr comb, wax scraped off the top bars.
- Cappings from extracting — Cappings from extracting, once the honey has drained, give 60–80 % wax. This is the palest wax.
- Dark frames — Each year take out the 2–3 darkest frames from the brood nest. Old dark comb gives only 30–50 % wax.
- Storing until rendering — Until rendering, keep wax scraps in a closed bucket or the freezer. Render them as soon as you can, by winter at the latest.
Why: Cappings, brace comb and old frames become a clean block that you exchange for foundation or use around the house. Wax scraps left for long in a warm cellar feed wax moth and mice.
- Comb, frames and wax from colonies with suspected American foulbrood aren't rendered, sold or given away. The disease is notifiable: report it to the bee inspector or state apiarist, who decides what happens to it.
- The rule is short: pale comb goes in the sun, dark comb in water and steam.
2. Fire safety
Wax is a fat: it burns like oil and sticks to skin like hot tar.
- Always in water — Heat wax only in water, steam or the sun. In water it can't get hotter than boiling water.
- 85–90 °C at most — Keep a thermometer in the pan. Above 85–90 °C (185–195 °F) wax darkens, and overheated wax smokes and gives off vapour that catches fire.
- Never unattended — Don't walk away while wax is melting, and keep a lid bigger than the pan beside it. Children and pets stay out of the room.
- Fire kit within reach — Keep a fire blanket or a fire extinguisher (powder or CO₂) within reach. Work outdoors, away from firewood and hay.
Why: Wax melts at 62–64 °C (144–147 °F), and on a hob it goes from liquid to burning without warning. Water under burning wax boils instantly and throws burning drops metres away.
- Never put out burning wax with water. Turn off the heat, cover the pan and don't lift the lid until it has cooled.
- Cool a burn under cold running water for 20 minutes and don't pull the wax off. Show larger burns, and burns to the face, hands or children, to a doctor.
3. Solar extractor · Locked
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4. Dark comb in a bag · Locked
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5. Cleaning and casting · Locked
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6. Wax around the house · Locked
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