# Is old brood comb wax useful?



## NCGrimbo (Dec 15, 2016)

I was wondering if the wax used in the brood comb can be collected, cleaned and then used for making candles, etc. Can this be done or is it not worth the work to clean the wax?


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## Gumpy (Mar 30, 2016)

I believe it can be done. I don't know if that's what you would use for candles. I think I've seen people advocate to use cappings for candles. 

If you decide you don't want to do the work of melting and cleaning, send it to me and I'll melt it and put it on my plastic foundation. My bees won't draw out plastic foundation. I've only been in this a year so I don't have any wax collected yet.


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

I have managed to get wax out of old brown brood comb, usually also with wax moth fuzz all over it. Not sure it is worth the effort. There's usually a lot of wax-soaked brown gunk left over. Some wax is extractable but I suspect more than half remains in the gunk.

The resulting wax, even after filtering, is never quite as pretty as new white comb wax. It is still useful for many projects. If you're sure it comes from a source with no diseases that could be carried by wax, you might use it in the hive. I frequently use a little beeswax to glue wires into foundation when assembling frames.


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## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

I put old comb in my homemade solar melter, as it melts I just stack more on top. with little to no effort I get a block of wax.


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## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

For me, the older the comb the more difficult it is to get the residual wax out of it. When I do, it's a darker color and the process takes longer. You can put the comb in a wax melter and you'll usually get some wax. A lot will still be in the old comb. If you want, you can boil it and filter it. Or boil it and let it cool, cutting the wax block from the junk and re-boiling until you're happy. Or, put the old comb in a mesh bag and boil it, occasionally squeezing the wax out. That cuts down on the filtering a little. It all depends on how much comb you have, how much time you're willing to put in and what your expectations are. If the comb is fairly young, I harvest the wax. If it's old, I use it for swarm traps.


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

Ravenseye said:


> If it's old, I use it for swarm traps.


Precisely how I wound up with old frames covered with wax moth fuzz. No great loss, though ... they were due for rotating out.


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## NCGrimbo (Dec 15, 2016)

Thanks for the answers.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Yes, it's useful. Find someone who reloads rifle and pistol shells. They'll buy it and use it.


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

aunt betty said:


> Yes, it's useful. Find someone who reloads rifle and pistol shells. They'll buy it and use it.


I hadn't thought of that! I have friends who do.


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## Eikel (Mar 12, 2014)

The residual gunk makes heck of a fire starter too


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## DerTiefster (Oct 27, 2016)

Note: See Fusion_power's post following this one and don't take me seriously on the steam recovery path. [That some use steam successfully doesn't mean it's the best path.] Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

As part of my early learning (for me, that was last year) I tried to recover wax from a half-dozen wax moth infested combs. I used a water bath to melt the wax and tried to separate it from the dross. I didn't realize that you want a more volume of water than you have of wax/stuff. The reason is that the stuff holds onto the wax and you have to be able to stir it and squeeze the wax out of the cocoons. Or so it seemed to me. I ended up with most of the wax solidifying with the cocoons. Frustratingly small return for the effort. I would prefer to use future bits for swarm traps, possibly wrapped in an appropriate netting to exclude moth larvae, if any such exist.

It's a messy job, and unless you have prepared for it, not a rewarding one. You might be well-off to place the wax between two screens with a very heavy weight on it, and then direct steam into the chamber. That heat plus the weight might well squeeze out the wax. Perhaps the fact that steam can be hotter than hot water is in play, too. Viscosity of wax is quite temperature dependent, so 110C (230F) steam might separate wax much better than stirring it in hot water. Or something like that.


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

You are still making mistakes so here are some solutions.

There are a few ways to separate wax from cocoons, all of them involve pressure. The best temperature to liquify wax is about 170 degrees. I've tried it hotter and I've tried it in boiling water and the result is always wax that smells burnt and sometimes has foam inclusions. Do not go above 175F if you want pretty wax that smells like wax.

1. Use a wax press. This is the expensive route. Look them up in the manufacturers catalogs and you will see why. Advantage is that they get all the wax.

2. Put the old combs into a burlap sack and set up two sticks so the sack can be twisted when it is hot. Put the sack in a large tank of water and twist. The harder it is twisted, the more wax it yeilds.

3. Use a screen wire bag which you can make with some screen and a bit of time with some wire to sew it together. Put the bag full of wax into a large container of water. Use a heavy stick to press the bag against the side or bottom of the container so the wax is released. If you put some gravel in the bag with the wax, it will keep the bag from floating. The bag can be reused.


There are ways to purify wax such as melting a large quantity through a filter. I have used 3 layers of paper towel in a large screen wire filter basket that I made to fit a 5 gallon pan. Put an inch of water in the bottom of the pan, fill the basket with wax chunks, and set it in the oven at 170 degrees. Monitor closely to ensure it does not overheat while the wax melts. The wax will go through and leave dirt, cocoons, and other residue in the paper towels. This method is not effective with old brood combs, but it is a very good way to purify wax if your goal is to make high purity clean wax.


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## DerTiefster (Oct 27, 2016)

Thank you for educating me a bit more. I appreciate the information on technique. I'd seen steam wax melters but not known that bit about boiling water being aleady too hot for the best wax. I'll be better prepared next time I want to strip some comb. I didn't lose too many frames' worth of wax, but the low recovery was a bit disappointing.

I'll continue making mistakes for quite some time more, I'm confident.


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

I discovered the "directly in water bath method" the hard way. I use an old slow cooker bought at a thrift store as my water bath, and was attempting to get wax out of a mass of brown crud, in a can sitting in the hot water. Lifting it out, I dropped the can and spilled the contents into the water bath. It actually turned out pretty well.

With this caution that must be the #1 takeaway from the whole discussion. If you use your wife's Crock Pot and kitchenware to do wax extraction, you are SOOOOO gonna be in trouble! Re-read everything said above about "messy". Get your own stuff (thrift stores and yard sales are great), and do it in the garage, your workshop, honey house ... never the kitchen.


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

I sold the black combs to a metalwork company. They use it to do finish on metal ( burn it in, mostly door frames) and they were very glad to get it and payed well. Wax moths and cocons, dead bees.... burn away no need to clean anything.
Looks very cool. Use the net.


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## BadBeeKeeper (Jan 24, 2015)

aunt betty said:


> Yes, it's useful. Find someone who reloads rifle and pistol shells. They'll buy it and use it.


I reload, but I have never used wax for anything. What have I missed?



Fusion_power said:


> 1. Use a wax press. This is the expensive route. Look them up in the manufacturers catalogs and you will see why. Advantage is that they get all the wax.


Might be a way to fabricate something like this, on the cheap. Thinking about the structure of an inexpensive shop press, using a frame and a hydraulic [bottle] jack...


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

I was just over on a forum called OpenBuilds, looking at ways of cutting aluminum channel with circular saw blades. It turns out there are special blades for this but many fine-tooth carbide saw blades will do it.

The question was raised of lubricants. Regular oils are not recommended for aluminum cutting, but ...

"On aluminum I use one of 2 things, kerosene or beeswax. I do a lot of lathe work and a quick dab of kero makes for smooth easy cutting with relatively easy cleanup."

On the matter of reloading, I seem to recall that the British used beeswax to lubricate their cartridges, but the word got out among their troops in India that they were using pig fat. This misunderstanding produced the "Dum-Dum Rebellion".


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## Alaskan79 (Jan 6, 2017)

I reload and cast my own bullets. You can use beeswax as a bullet lube. It is in a lot of the lube that you buy. The 50/50 lube is 50% alox and 50% beeswax. I plan on using some of my own wax as bullet lubes. Just Google bullet lubes you will find a lot of info about making your own lubes for cast bullets.


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## BadBeeKeeper (Jan 24, 2015)

Alaskan79 said:


> I reload and cast my own bullets. You can use beeswax as a bullet lube. It is in a lot of the lube that you buy. The 50/50 lube is 50% alox and 50% beeswax. I plan on using some of my own wax as bullet lubes. Just Google bullet lubes you will find a lot of info about making your own lubes for cast bullets.


Thanks for the info! I've not got into casting my own yet, but I expect to, at some point. I have quite a collection of lead that I have been accumulating.


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