what to do with honey after melting down wax

[deb]

I've just melted down my first bucket of beeswax - collected from cappings and brace comb over the last couple of years. I used a bain-marie method and didn't mix the wax with water.

I strained the molten wax into a tetra pack box and, when it set and I cut it open, I found I had a lot of honey in between the layers - so much that I caught it in time and carefully poured it out into a bowl. There's about a lb and a half!

Is there anything I can do with this honey. It seems such a shame to waste it. Can I feed it to the bees? It doesn't have anything mixed in it, except the impurities that were in the wax - so it's darker than the honey I spun from the frames. Can I eat it? It tastes quite waxy, but still delicious.

 

[itma]

Because of the heating, I'd now hesitate to use it as bee food, what with the probability of the HMF level being increased to a bee-harmful level.

However, if it tastes good, I would have no hesitation in eating it myself! In the unlikely event that it were to be sold, it'd be best labelled as "honey for cooking" (though you shouldn't need to restrict yourself to that).


Cappings can be spun, or drained in a thing like a jelly bag (or even an actual jelly bag!)
And some people then give the drained cappings back to the bees (above a hole in the crown board), for them to pick out what honey they can.
Though for prize-winning wax, the thing to do (or so I've been told) is to wash (mead-makers would collect the wash-water - others might use it in syrup for autumn feed) and dry the cappings before melting them. And for the 'cleanest' candles, etc, don't mix cappings with any other beeswax.

 

[Finman]

.
It is waste. It has disease spores and aroma is awfull.
It is better to give pure sugar that that awfull stuff.

 

[alanf]

If it looks and tastes OK then many use recovered honey in cooking. It has already been heated so avoid feeding to bees. Honey cake is fine with lesss than premium honey.

 

[ian]

Down the sink

 

[For want of a better word]

mead or preferably a methlegren..... quicker and has added spices, stop fermentation after 10 days with a cup of vodka.
recipes under cooking section I think