# Charge for Rendering Wax



## Dancing Bee Apiary (Jan 5, 2010)

Hello,

I have taken on Rendering some beeswax for some other beekeepers. Right now I'm trying to work out a fair charge or wax trade. Does anyone get their wax done for them? Or do it for other beekeepers? If so what is the going rate.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

What are you rendering? Cappings, slum gum, old comb? The yield should dictate your price.

Crazy Roland


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

Out here it is 50/50 on cappings, all slum rendered also, and honey saved. If it is just slum you take what you get from the job. Slum can vary quite a bit

What I mean is all the slum from the cappings is worked also. Get everything.


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## Dancing Bee Apiary (Jan 5, 2010)

I was thinking 50/50 too. Its a lot of mess doing it. Thanks.


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

We've charged $.50 per pound honey or wax, customer keeps the product, but we often end up buying the wax. Cappings wax, we keep any slum.
Sheri


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

I don't see how anyone can make any money rendering wax on a 50/50 basis. The rendering operations I have seen are dangerous. The guy I know got boiling hot water down inside his rubber boots. He also had a fire which rendered everything into a pile of burnt wood and ash.

Don't set your wax rendering operation up in the same building as anything else. Especially your honey house.


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## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

I pay $.25 per pound for cappings and $.75 per pound for comb.


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## gregstahlman (Oct 7, 2009)

who renders wax in rubber boots??? dress appropriately like me. redwings and a cutoff t shirt hahaha


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

I'm not understanding the 50/50 thing. I have been quoted from .25 up to the mid .40's for cappings. Light wax brings from 2.20 up to around 2.40 per lb. Burnt honey is usually split with the value usually deducted from the rendering charge.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

The way I understand the 50/50 split is whatever wax comes from the rendering it's split 50/50 between the renderer and the beekeeper. The guy I know, who isn't set up to do it anymore, would take the wax to a buyer and sell it to the buyer. He kept half the money and the beekeeper got the other half. Or the wax was entered into the beekeepers "Wax Bank Account" w/ the buyer.

So, according to Jims' numbers, for all the trouble, the renderer would get $1.20/lb of wax rendered from cappings or old combs. Seems like alot of work for little pay.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Meyers just quoted me rendering charges of .34 for cappings, .59 for slum and .83 for frames. They will then buy that wax from you for 2.30. Though I would assume they would pay a bit less for darker wax.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Who gets the honey from the cappings? Or are they so dry there really isn't much?


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Not sure with Meyers, had another outfit tell me that they keep it but pay you .25 per lb in the form of a deduction from their rendering charges. We don't usually get a lot usually somewhere between 1and 2 per cent of the total crop.


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

At .34 cents per pound is that for the finished wax or pounds of cappings?


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

Cappings are so easy to run. I can't envision a scenario allowing hot whatever in to my boot. My homemade cappings oven is virtually labor free. The slum is what takes time. I can get a light amber honey with out caramelization.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I pay .25 cent, same guy Allen takes his to.

But this outfit is pretty well set up, and handle a modest of volume.

For a beekeeper to render cappings for 25 cents with make shift equipment wouldn't be worth the effort in my opinion


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## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

We have about 2% come out in melter honey and sold it for $1.75 a lb to a small packer. 
$.25 a lb on capping wax is cheap. I charge $.75 a lb finish goods and I keeping the melter honey. 
On most barrels of slum I press out 80-110 lb of wax, and it takes a hot June day to get that. 
So some wax makes you money easier then others.:kn:


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## JCA Beeswax Processing (Feb 18, 2012)

I pay on 60% of the wax and 50% on the honey. I will market both wax and honey. In it for the wax.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

JCA Beeswax Processing said:


> I pay on 60% of the wax and 50% on the honey. I will market both wax and honey. In it for the wax.


I'm not understanding. Give an example. If you melt a drum of cappings and get 150 pounds of wax from it. What is your charge?


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## JCA Beeswax Processing (Feb 18, 2012)

I would pay the beekeeper for 90 lbs of his wax and keep the other 60. Price is based on buying price from big supply houses plus a margin. This seems like a lot at 150 lbs per drum but it is not so much if you get stuff left out in the rain for 4 years that has half rotted. I also return the sales price of 50 % of the honey recovered. I have recovered as much as 200 lbs of honey from drum of cappings. Transportation is negotiable on truck load lots.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Does anyone in the Northeast render old brood combs? I have several pallets that are going on the burn pile if I can't find someone to do the job.


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