We left the frames outside so the remaining bees could clean them out and boy did they! They sucked out all of the remaining honey and left us with 4 frames of empty comb which we scraped off and melted down.
Yep, they left some nasty looking stuff in there but at least its all "organic" and "natural" right?!
In case you are wondering how we managed to remove all the bee butts, wings and other various nasty bits from the leftover wax, we melted it in boiling water so that the wax floated to the top. Then we let it harden up so we could scrape off the crud that settled to the bottom. After repeating this process a few times to remove the big pieces of debris we boiled it again in a double boiler and filtered it by pouring the liquid wax into a yogurt cup over some clean pantyhose.
Voila!!! 4 oz of beautifully clean beeswax!
My goal is to turn this into homemade lip balm. I think this chunk should last me a while and since lip balm practically goes IN TO your mouth I have gotten kinda funny about all the chemical packed chap sticks that I find at the store. All the recipes I have found make it look pretty easy so wish me luck and I'll keep you all posted on how it turns out!
I Had no idea you could do that. It looks like a candle.
ReplyDeleteVery cool!! I was telling my grandaddy that you were keeping bees. He's been doing it for a few years now and he always has the BEST honey. I mentioned that one of your hives uh, went on a permanent vacation ;) He said his did this year, too! He was just as upset about it as you are. He gave me his last jar of honey though! Good luck with the other hives and your lip balm!!
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