how much wax

[birdsandbees]

anyone tried the uncapping roller?

something I was looking at a little while ago, thought it looked like it should work and pretty quickly too.

 

[enrico]

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

A tip with the heat gun, use it from the top of the frame down and it doesn't reseal
E

 

[Eyeman]

A tip with the heat gun, use it from the top of the frame down and it doesn't reseal
E

Stick with the crispy, dry cappings the greasy ones need the fork or knife.
Only around 50% of my cappings are suitable for the hot air gun.

 

[Stiffy]

anyone tried the uncapping roller?

something I was looking at a little while ago, thought it looked like it should work and pretty quickly too.

We use a heat gun followed by a once over with a roller, works a treat
S

 

[Swarm]

anyone tried the uncapping roller?

something I was looking at a little while ago, thought it looked like it should work and pretty quickly too.

My son in law is in Australia and uses an electrical device called the 'honey paw'. You hold it on the frame and move it top to bottom and it cuts lines through the cappings, a couple of passes does each side, mess free.

 

[Millet]

My son in law is in Australia and uses an electrical device called the 'honey paw'. You hold it on the frame and move it top to bottom and it cuts lines through the cappings, a couple of passes does each side, mess free.

Do you have a link or video of that, it sounds pretty good if it is mess free.

 

[Beefriendly]

https://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=35504

 

[Millet]

https://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=35504

Cheers for that N , i fear i will give that a miss and stick with the owld bread knife for now..

 

[Swarm]

It's as fast as any other method unless you have one of those brush machines and they make an awful mess. It doesn't seem to cause a bottleneck for him and he has over a hundred colonies.

 

[keith pierce]

minimum of one and a half pound per hive and am trying to increase that.

 

[Ely]

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.

Did you post it?

 

[Tom Bick]

If you get the chance cut through one of your combs with a knife and look at the midrib, you will notice it is surprisingly thick and looks similar to when you put it in the frame. The bees clearly only use a small amount. If you get the chance to compare with some natural (no foundation) combs you will see the midrib is as thin and delicate as the side walls. The base of the cells are also not as flat as those of foundation.

With foundationless frames you would be lucky to recover 1lb of wax from a full BB and sometimes a lot less. You do question if it's all worth going through the recovery process at times.

This past season I started to use an uncapping knife once again after several years of using a heat gun and this gave me loads of the loveliest wax imaginable with a bit of silverware from the NHS to show for it.

 

[Eyeman]

With foundationless frames you would be lucky to recover 1lb of wax from a full BB and sometimes a lot less. You do question if it's all worth going through the recovery process at times.

BB frames go into the wax steamer to recover & clean the frames, any wax is a bonus.

 

[drex]

Did you post it?

No. I popped into one of their outlets when I was on a journey taking me nearby.

 

[Poly Hive]

When I was extracting honey I used Manley frames and cut them back to the wood. Obviously, this left a LOT of honey in the cappings bucket but a warm up and then a run through the spin drier sorted that out no bother.

I reclaimed a lot of wax which in turn made good returns via moulded candles and polish and furniture cream. Very much well worth the effort.

The spin drier is the key.

KISS

PH