# Why do these beeswax pellets smell bad?



## mathesonequip

could be the aroma of dead bees.


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## CessnaGirl

I find that rendered fresh honeycomb smells good and is a beautiful creamy color while old comb, especially brood comb smells not so good and is shades of amber in color. The stuff (slum gum?) left after rendering always smells nasty, slightly burnt. I use a Sanford & Son solar wax melter and I figure the cocoons get scorched, thus the stink.


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## crofter

Some people scrape off drone comb from frame bottoms as well as a fair bit of propolis. They chuck it into a plastic pail to keep bees off of it and the brood inside gets awefully putrid. Lots of stuff you scrape is a mix of propolis and wax and it wont have the nice aroma of uncontaminated light colored wax. My guess is your pelleted wax is from non too select a source. Baloney is baloney no matter how thin you slice it!


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## Frankiebee

Thank you everyone for your responses. It now makes much more sense. I'll be tossing it. Though it's a shame to waste it, a good lesson learned. We'll be using our own for cosmetics, or at least know and trust our sources. I tried to find where the beeswax originated and I was unable to find these on either of the packages.


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## Candleman

Beeswax pellets quite often come from overseas where nasty chemicals are present in the hives, overheated poor quality beeswax can also produce bad smelling pellets.
Rendering beeswax gently with rain water with apple cider vinegar will produce nice smelling beeswax , the key is to not heat above 165 F . Solar wax melters can be too 
hot if the sun is strong mid summer. Lots of good info at www.happyhoneybee.ca

Beeswax will also absorb odours if exposed for extended periods , beeswax pellets often are sold by companies that sell soap making supplies , if the beeswax pellets are
sitting beside something that has a lot of VOC's then the beeswax will absorb that odour.


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## drlonzo

Frankiebee said:


> I just got some beeswax pellets through the mail. On opening the bag the instead of the sweet beeswax smell I expected the beeswax had a weird odor to it. The best I can describe it is after tones of stale smoke. I thought perhaps I had gotten an off batch. I then went to a company that sells essential oils and other cosmetic supplies. I opened up a small container of beeswax pellets only to discover the same stale smoke odor to it. Does anyone have any explanations? I certainly don't want to use these in cosmetics, and frankly don't think these would be pleasant as candles.


Possibly from directly overheated wax.


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## Candleman

Candleman said:


> Beeswax pellets quite often come from overseas where nasty chemicals are present in the hives, overheated poor quality beeswax can also produce bad smelling pellets.
> Rendering beeswax gently with rain water with apple cider vinegar will produce nice smelling beeswax , the key is to not heat above 165 F . Solar wax melters can be too
> hot if the sun is strong mid summer. Lots of good info at www.happyhoneybee.ca
> 
> Beeswax will also absorb odours if exposed for extended periods , beeswax pellets often are sold by companies that sell soap making supplies , if the beeswax pellets are
> sitting beside something that has a lot of VOC's then the beeswax will absorb that odour.


Asian honeybees produce a wax called Ghedda which is different from the beeswax produced by European honeybees


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## Michael Bush

>The best I can describe it is after tones of stale smoke.

My guess is it's PDB you are smelling... but maybe it's just stale smoke...


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## Peter Montague

This is a really old thread but this is because some places still do a chemical bleaching process to lighten dark wax. I bought some dirt cheap "organic" beeswax off amazon and was shocked at how toxic it smelled. When I buy, I now buy form https://www.ebeehoney.com/beeswax_1lb.html and its almost the same price.


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