cleaning up wax from frames - how hard can it be?

[alynewbee]

Hi all,

As part of my move to 14 x 12 I have a lot of national brood frames that are pretty brown and manky so I set about cutting out and melting down the wax out of the frames. I chopped up the wax and put it in a washed out baked bean tin and put that in a pan of boiling water and waited ..... and waited and waited. It has taken forever to melt down and I've got about an inch of wax out of a few frames and loads and loads of bee gunk left behind.

My question is, is the bee gunk any use for anything other than the bin and is there an easier way to do this job bearing in mind I have no specialist equipment. Any advice would be most welcome?

Many thanks

Aly

 

[Poly Hive]

As you are discovering the hard way there is remarkably little wax in a brood frame.

I too discovered this by brewing up dustbins literally full of old combs.

Waste of time I soon realised.

Old frames make excellent fire lighters.

PH

 

[Onge]

The bee cocoon gunk itself makes perfect fire lighters. Just pour the gunk into kitchen roll making a hand full at a time.

Been using them for years now.

Yes and the old frames are great kindling.

 

[alynewbee]

Thanks for the replies, going to stop flogging that dead horse then. Have not got an open fire, dunno what to do with it all.

 

[Poly Hive]

Bonfire.

PH

 

[alynewbee]

Good idea, nearly November 5th!

 

[Sean.]

Would it be worth keeping the frames to use in a bait hive? Yes, you could get wax moth issues, but as they are old frames would not be an issue.

 

[luckydunny]

I had same issue and after searching the forum followed advice to place wax comb in old pair of tights put into large, (old saucepan) with water. Add couple squirts of lemon juice and gently bring to simmer over camping stove in garage.

Let cool, slowly and result was lots of dirty water - discard, a real mess of mush - use as firelighters when wrapped in paper and dry - finally a cake of wax to use for candle making, polish or exchange/conversion with suppliers running such schemes.

Actually was worth the effort but only becuase winter and little else to do with bees..

 

[kighill]

You can put them on the compost heap if you do not want the trouble of melting.

Just dig a bit out of the middle and place in the hole then cover over.

This should deter any wax moths.

 

[Onge]

Here's one I made earlier. Got some candles to make during the winter now.

 

[Finman]

.
Frames are extremly expencive in Britain. 10 frames are almost as expencive as poly box.

You get them like new when you put 3-5% lye into boiling water.
Heat looses the wax and resin and lye turns the wax into soap.

If you have friends, you may boil a bigger number of frames in lye.
100 frames is a easy job.

Make punch of frames which you get into boiler.

Then, dilute them in water.

Rubber gloves needed and clothe protections.

Our society has sometimes frame boiling day.

.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Lots of posts on using old tights on here at the moment - better be careful what I tell SWMBO what I did in my hotel room when not preparing for my firearms assesments tomorrow! she might get worried when i enquire about any spare hosiery!!

 

[sahtlinurk]

i changed over to 14x12 this year, got loads of BS brood frames left. But then had an idea. will cut them down to super frames. should be a quick job. just get the side bar length right and nail bottom bar back.job done.

Lauri

 

[Andy Duff]

Advertise it on flea-bay.

The butt-nutters will pay good money for owt.

 

[alynewbee]

Excellent ideas from all, thank you. Going to try the tights idea as I have several million pairs lying around!

Thanks to all.

Alyson

 

[JamezF]

I've occasionally pondered boiling old frames to clean them up. I can't persuade myself however that the amount of time and effort, and the cost of the gas to heat the volume of water required, makes it worth the bother. Does anyone still do it and find it cost-effective?

James

 

[Poly Hive]

No

PH

 

[chrismcd]

I use a steam extractor.

Mine was a present bought from T****'s, but I suspect that a wallpaper stripper with the hose led up into the top of a well strapped brood box would have the same effect!

Takes about an hour and stinks - so do it outside, but not where the bees can smell it or you will have hassle.

I angle the brood chamber so that the water and wax drips out of one corner into a tray. The water runs into the lawn and the wax solidifies in the tray (hopefully!).

As someone else said, old brood frame cells are about 90% silk and slumgum, so do not expect loads of wax. I let the frames drain and then cut out the remaining rubbish and burn it.

The propylis varnishes the frames and they take about a quarter of the time to put new foundation into compared to building new frames from kits. Also, there is a useful saving as well, since I reckon you can recycle them at least twice

After an hour in hot, wet steam I am confident that no pests, eggs, spores etc, have survived. I try and recycle at least 30% of my brood frames every year, so the dirty ones do build up.

Up here in sunny Yorkshire it beats solar extraction most of the time!

 

[Frisbee]

I bought a book on beeswax........

The recommendation in there was to soak old combs in cold rainwater for a few days and break them up with your hands, the reasoning behind this was the cocoons soak up the water rather than the wax as the water is heating, that's why there appears to be so little wax from old combs, much of it gets left behind soaked into the cocoons. Even if you drip from tights, the wax soon begins to solidify. Also of course the wax from old combs is a disgusting colour, so pre-soaking removes some of that, once the wax is stained with the old cocoons then it's there for ever.

Delightful as Onge's picture of a slab of wax is, there is no-way that has come from old combs

I have to confess I haven't got round to trying the cold soak yet, haven't had time, the old combs are sitting waiting, as is the tub of rain water.

Frisbee

 

[Onge]

Well that wax is from brood and honey combs. I don't use a queen excluder so I have a mix of brood and honey. I constantly rotate whole boxes of combs out.

I remove large quantities of slumgum that I use as fire lighters.

Once all the wax has had one melting, I put all the wax disks together in a pot with some water heat it all up until it melted. Then switch off the gas and throw lots of towels, oven gloves, jackets etc over the pot. 24 hours later its still very warm and all the crap has settled to the bottom.

I then leaver it out and cut the layer of crap off the bottom.

I think the secret is to not stir it about too much when doing the initial melt.

That soaking of the combs sounds like a good idea.