Recycling brood wax?

[Rory Fields]

I know most advise just chucking old brood comb away, or at best, bunging it in a solar melter or slow-cooker. A lot of mine has wires in and life's too short to go through them individually removing wires to just compost them so i just cut the comv out, ckean the frames and rewax with starter strips. I hate waste; what're the best uses people have found for their old brood comb when they've already sufficient for any bait hives? Not bothered about making money from it, just trying to think of an actual use for all those deformed, dirty brood frames. Pains me to just burn it or bin it! Cheers gang, Ror.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Compost bin

 

[pargyle]

You can melt it down - you don't get masses of wax from them but I just finished processing abour 20 or so brood frames that were really dark and I got about a pound of wax (They were my foundationless frames - you should get a better return on those with foundation). I sell beeswax blocks at £3.00 an ounce so that's nearly £50 - no brainer. Yes, it needs a bit of filtering and it's still a bit brownish at the end but - my blocks still sell so ... I'm not looking for show quality !

 

[Jules59]

I made a steamer from an old brood box.
I load a box of frames in after removing the lock bar and steam the lot. Clean-ish wax drains out the bottom and gets filtered later. The brown messy residue gets tipped out onto newspaper and goes on the compost. The frames go for kindling. I've not found it cost-effective to boil up frames to recycle them; the amount of LPG used to boil a large container of water was quite considerable. Maybe an electric boiler (eg Burco) would be more efficient but Ive not yet found one at a sensible price.
Plus I dont mind making up new frames - I can watch TV or listen to my music at the same time.

 

[Curly green finger's]

I melted down well started to process brood wax but gave up after processing and getting little return imo it’s only the frames that are worth keeping and boiling in washing soda unless you have time on your hands over winter?

 

[North End Bees]

I sell beeswax blocks at £3.00 an ounce so that's nearly £50 - no brainer.

£3/oz is a good price. I don't know if I'd get that round here.
Do you also sell candles?

 

[pargyle]

£3/oz is a good price. I don't know if I'd get that round here.
Do you also sell candles?

No .. I sell polish, wax blocks and woodturners polish. The candle business is saturated with people selling all sorts of candles - at ridiculous prices - the time to make them, the amount of wax they consume .. not worth the candle (Sorry !) to me. I make a few tea lights for friends and family but that's the limit.

 

[ericbeaumont]

£3/oz is a good price. I don't know if I'd get that round here

You will if you ask. I know a beefarmer from Barking who does markets out into central Essex, and he gets prices I don't in North London!

 

[pargyle]

You will if you ask. I know a beefarmer from Barking who does markets out into central Essex, and he gets prices I don't in North London!

I think you are right ... beeswax blocks can still be found with people selling them for a pound an ounce - but I think it's a tremendously undervalued product ... and they are wrong.

Wax blocks are selling on Etsy (with acknowledged no providence - so probably foreign wax) for £4.60 to £5.20 an ounce ! Find your market and price accordingly ...

 

[ericbeaumont]

Find your market and price accordingly

Price according to value and the market will find you, even though sales may be minor. The sort of buyer that wants wax is likely to be selective and want quality and won't quibble over a £ or two (may even decline if you sell too cheap).

Sell cappings wax for cosmetics and keep general comb wax to make furniture polish and that sort, or swap for foundation, because even miniscule chemical residue from varroa treatments ought not to be sold to those making hand salve at home. These are my own thoughts, and general wax sellers will likely bung it all in the same pot, but in the world of beeswax wraps and cosmetics the purest wax should be used, and that is from cappings.

 

[Tim.S]

I don't waste any frames, they all get steamed out in brood boxes which conveniently are sterilized at the same time. All the rendered wax goes to Thornes for exchange. It pays hands down to do this part but cleaning and re using brood frames is a waste of time, far cheaper to buy seconds at £30 for 50 and start the new season with fresh wax and frames. Which reminds me I've got 400 new frames staring at me that want foundation in them!

 

[ericbeaumont]

400 new frames staring at me that want foundation

Find a teenager and teach it!

 

[peterbees]

Here are my notes on Preparing beeswax for Sale.
Steaming old brood combs is more effective than trying to melt out the wax, in my experience.
https://www.conwybeekeepers.org.uk/new-beekeepers/preparing-beeswax-for-sale/

 

[peterbees]

Here's my list of Uses for small blocks of Beeswax. Feel free to suggest others!
https://www.conwybeekeepers.org.uk/new-beekeepers/what-do-you-use-beeswax-for/

 

[mbc]

Here's my list of Uses for small blocks of Beeswax. Feel free to suggest others!
https://www.conwybeekeepers.org.uk/new-beekeepers/what-do-you-use-beeswax-for/

Great list.
My favourites to add would be to make sleds go faster (had some lovely boys clean me out of wax for this purpose one market)and to lubricate valve radios

 

[ericbeaumont]

lubricate valve radios

Lovely! Forty years ago they were easy to find at London flea markets and I loved the design and sound quality, but that mellow sound would often crackle. Tempted to get one out of the loft and try the beeswax trick (or has the world deleted that low-fi signal?).

 

[ericbeaumont]

Steaming

Would be useful to specify the pan metal when treating beeswax, Peter. Years ago I found an old copper pan and the result was an awful disaster.

 

[Rory Fields]

Here are my notes on Preparing beeswax for Sale.
Steaming old brood combs is more effective than trying to melt out the wax, in my experience.
https://www.conwybeekeepers.org.uk/new-beekeepers/preparing-beeswax-for-sale/

I found the Thorne's easisteam largely ineffective on brood comb, perhaps an indictment of just how dark and propolis I'd let them become but it barely melted 3 or 4 frames in the brood box I used, and even those were more collapsed than melted as such. Found it v frustrating and would take a lot of rerunning the steamer to get anything from it - I did it in my shed to conserve heat and deter bees - is there some hack I'm missing to make it more effective?

 

[Ely]

No .. I sell polish, wax blocks and woodturners polish. The candle business is saturated with people selling all sorts of candles - at ridiculous prices - the time to make them, the amount of wax they consume .. not worth the candle (Sorry !) to me. I make a few tea lights for friends and family but that's the limit.

do you need a special license for polish?

 

[pargyle]

do you need a special license for polish?

No ... and it's really easy to make ...