Returning honey/wax mixture to bees

[dc197]

Hello everyone
I am pleased to have completed my first extraction and am now just waiting to bottle.
I have a small tub of wax mixed with honey that came off the Pratley tray. I don't intend to do much with the wax as it's hardly enough for a candle, and the honey has been headed by the Pratley sufficiently to impair its flavour. I was wondering whether this mixture could be returned to the bees. If I gave it to them at this time of year, would they welcome both the honey and the wax, or would they try to use the honey while ignoring the wax? If they would not be interested in the wax, I will make the effort to separate it from the honey and give them only the latter.
What would you recommend, please?
Thanks
Daniel

 

[oliver90owner]

The bees will not use the wax returned. If you look under your hive when the bees are using honey from capped cells you will find it there. Ever watched bees robbing honey from a piece of comb? Do they rob the comb?

They may use a tiny bit but most might very well be discarded or simply ignored.

You could spread it thinly in a piece of old tights or similar material and allow the bees to suck it dry. I sometimes put it in a saucer on the crownboard or leave it in a sieve ina empty super above the crownboard.

RAB

 

[dc197]

Good point, never thought of it like that.
Looks like I will be making candles after all.

Many thanks

 

[Skyhook]

I'm planning to put mine in a feeder- they can take the honey and leave me the wax.

 

[louiseww]

I did my first honey harvest in the fan oven at 40 degrees C, of course the foundation melts too, but I put the crumbled left overs on muslin on top of the rapid feeder for the bees to clean up.....they seem to be enjoying it particularly as the weather is so awful here at the moment.

 

[Midland Beek]

Try uncapping with a heat gun. Then you wouldn't have a pile of wax and honey ... and you would have saved a packet on the purchase of your Pratley tray.

 

[Midland Beek]

I did my first honey harvest in the fan oven at 40 degrees C, of course the foundation melts too, but I put the crumbled left overs on muslin on top of the rapid feeder for the bees to clean up.....they seem to be enjoying it particularly as the weather is so awful here at the moment.

I wouldn't trust your oven. Note that beeswax melts at about 62 degrees or thereabouts.

However, I think extraction by the fan oven method has something going for it. The flash point or autoignition temperature for beeswax is, in fact, quite high. And while I wouldn't melt beeswax straight off in an oven for reasons of safety, I think melting a wax/honey mix is a safe and sound proposition because of the way the mixture dissipates heat. And to extract, you need not actually melt the beeswax if it has been broken down by some mechanical means beforehand.