how much wax

[piggy]

About how much wax would you collect per hive? cappings , rendered frames, odds and sods.
I was watching a you-tube video by steppler honey farms,Manitoba,Canada and he said he produces about 3000 lbs. of rendered wax from his 1500 colonies, about 2lbs /hive. They have bigger honey crops than I do, hence more capping wax than me. I average about 1lb./hive. How about you?

 

[Eyeman]

All the scraping from brace/burr comb during inspections go into a plastic bag I carry around with me, so at the end of the season Ive got near on 20 bags. Last season they weighed 1.5 lbs - so with wax blocks or dipped candles going for £1 an ounce that's £24 worth!

 

[Finman]

.
If you uncap with fork, practically you do not get wax from uncapping.

In Canada average yield is 70-90 kg/hive.

 

[Millet]

Upto now i have a eye full after 3yrs of messing about, i'm not brutal by the way..

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Very little lol

 

[oliver90owner]

Let’s think about it rationally.

No honey - no cappings! The greater the harvest, the more cappings!

Routine brood frame changes. Think how much foundation you might have put in there. The bees would add a little more. Depends, of course, on frame size - and how often you change the frames for ones with new foundation.

There will usually be brace comb and damaged frames to deal with, although most shallow frames can survive several seasons of use.

 

[Heather]

I only collect cappings and pale wax. I dump dark as usually useless and waste of your time and effort. And as Finman says. fork uncapping give zilch. ...but I let others use my extractor on the understanding/fee I keep their cappings.. win/win scenario

 

[Poly Hive]

I use my darker wax for polish. Makes money that does.....

PH

 

[Heather]

The money earned against time involved... I have better things to do...I just enjoy the creamy white candle making.

 

[Curley]

I was a bit surprised when Heather and the Finster don't get many cappings when using an uncapping fork.
I use an uncapping fork and end up with loads of cappings - which I am perfectly happy with because I show my wax and make candles.
So I looked at youtube (I know ) there seems to be two approaches to using the fork - lifting them off or scratching them off, the latter producing hardly any cappings but - would seem to me - lots of little bits of wax to clog up the coarse filter.
Is this not a problem for people taking this approach?

 

[Heather]

Yes- am a scratcher, and lift the clogging wax onto another mesh filter to drain better and return the drained honey back into the extractor.

 

[madasafish]

I uncap using a heat gun so no cappings. I have collected 3kg wax from average 6 hives over 3 years. (I don't do imperial)

 

[drex]

I used a major suppliers wax exchange system last year and was pleasantly surprised at how much foundation I got in exchange. All old wax just gets bunged in the home made solar wax melter, which also contains a fine filter. All was accepted in exchange. Little work for significant gains.

 

[For want of a better word]

To date every ounce ( or gram) of beeswax cappings produced by my native black bees is sold to a Cornish Cosmetics company who will ONLY use Cornish bees wax ... they pay as much as I get for honey!!

Makes the process of extraction a little longer.. but they only want the very best of the best!!"
Same company wanted to know if I could produce bee venom......

I don't think they sell their products in the UK.... all for export ( and EXPENSIVE)

Yeghes da

 

[birdsandbees]

I'll be rotating out some older comb this year but most of the meagre amount of wax I have accumulated over the last couple of years thus far has been through cut outs, that being a modest 2kg, I'm a scratcher too when it comes to uncapping, I tried the heat gun but they kept re sealing on me.

It amazes me the amount of wax I see being wheeled up for exchange at Tradex, though looking at some of it I think a fair percentage is mould and detritus

 

[Poly Hive]

I am sitting on a good 30+ kilos of pre varroa cappings wax..... Filtered. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDBiGgWpnI0&t=21s

PH

 

[Finman]

To date every ounce ( or gram) of beeswax cappings produced by my native black bees is sold to a Cornish Cosmetics company who will ONLY use Cornish bees wax ... they pay as much as I get for honey!!

Makes the process of extraction a little longer.. but they only want the very best of the best!!"
Same company wanted to know if I could produce bee venom......

I don't think they sell their products in the UK.... all for export ( and EXPENSIVE)

Yeghes da

You get best Value when you do foundations from the wax.
.

 

[Beefriendly]

I am sitting on a good 30+ kilos of pre varroa cappings wax.....

Is that not uncomfortable?
I can recommend a cushion.

 

[Finman]

.
I looked "Cornish cosmetic factory" . Only what I found was "Cornish hand made toilets".
Native local...

 

[For want of a better word]

I'll be rotating out some older comb this year but most of the meagre amount of wax I have accumulated over the last couple of years thus far has been through cut outs, that being a modest 2kg, I'm a scratcher too when it comes to uncapping, I tried the heat gun but they kept re sealing on me.

It amazes me the amount of wax I see being wheeled up for exchange at Tradex, though looking at some of it I think a fair percentage is mould and detritus

Use the hear gun ... and then scratch... works for me.
Did make a nylon brush uncapper.. but all got very messy.
Knife works OK but tedious with 100 or so supers to get uncapped and back on the colonies to be filled again!!

Yeghes da