Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
In your safe-melting area, set up a workbench in your space. Saw horses and a
few planks, covered with newspapers or other disposable covering, work well. I use a
leftover piece of wood siding from a garage update cut to about 4' 2.5' (1.2 0.8 m).
One end sits on a sawhorse while the other is propped up on unused bee boxes. It's not
pretty but it doesn't need covering, and it works just fine as a temporary workbench for
many tasks.
Types of Wax
Before you begin melting raw, uncleaned wax, sort it by color. Burr and brace
comb creates nearly white wax. Cappings wax is lemon colored. You may have
darker wax from brood frames. Mixing colors creates dark wax. The darkness
comes mostly from propolis and fine dirt particles in the wax that won't filter out.
Propolis also makes candles burn a bit erratically, can give lip balms an off flavor,
and creams and lotions a darker tinge that you may not want. Dark wax is good for
making soaps because of the colors, for household uses such as lubricating draw-
ers and the like, and for polishes and water proofing lotions. Save it for those uses.
Only melt darker wax in a solar melter. A solar wax melter removes wax from
plastic foundation and separates the wax from the cocoons, wire, and propolis on
brood combs. Also, the uncontrolled heat inside a wax melter may lead to darken-
ing the wax, which is what happens when wax is heated to extreme, 200ºF (93ºC)
and higher.
Try to melt beeswax as few times as possible.
Wax from seven beekeepers will be seven different colors.
Melting Beeswax
Use an electric heat source—not gas, not flame. If you are outside or away from a ded-
icated outlet use a heavy-duty grounded extension cord. I use a double burner hot plate.
For more detail, see the section on melting wax for coating plastic frames—it's the same
setup. I can melt a lot of wax when I'm in my industrial mode. Containers should be
made of aluminum, enameled steel, or stainless steel. Don't use copper, iron, or nickel
