Bees wax! Lots of bees wax!

[MirandaH]

I hope I am doing this right, I have never used the app before.

I am in SC with my wonderful hubby and he owns a tree company. While doing a job this morning, he going a HUGE honeybee hive in a tree. Well post pics later. The homeowner's response was "Just get it out of here!" Hubby had me come to the house and now we have both been sung, multiple times, but we have two garbage bags full of honey and bees wax. Needless to say, the combs are not in their pristine condition anymore for the most part. Can I do anything with it? Anyone have any idea how to get the honey and wax separated?

 

[MirandaH]

Found a hive, not going. Forgive the typos. On my phone.

 

[Susie]

Start by lining a colander with cheesecloth or using a mesh strainer. Crush the beeswax either by hand or placing it in the strainer then mashing with the back of a spoon. Keep adding/mashing til strainer is full. Set wax aside in a large container that is clean enough to eat out of. The rest of the honey will drip out over time. Repeat above until you finish. Re-strain honey a few times(2-3 depending on clarity) until you get something you are willing to eat. After a few days, you can repeat with the honey that settles on the bottom from the wax you set aside.

Once you have all the honey you want to fool with out of the wax(you will never get it all), break up the wax and put into a pot that you are never going to use again for anything but beeswax with half a pot of water on bottom. Cover and bring to boil, then uncover and simmer til all wax is melted. Stir while this is melting. Set in cool place, cover and let harden over night. In the morning, remove the chunk of wax and scrape the propolis off the bottom(brown and black junk). Get clean, fresh water and repeat melting, setting aside, scraping until you get NOTHING but clean, pure wax.

 

[MirandaH]

Susie, you are awesome!! Thank you! There is very limited internet access out here where I am, and the app is the only thing I can get to work right now!! Off to finish picking out the dead bees!

 

[dixiedragon]

I have no advice, but I'm soooo jealous!

 

[MirandaH]

I have normal internet for a second, but I am not sure how long I will have it.

I'll tell you what dixiedragon, if nothing else, we earned it, lol! We are both stung. I even got stung on the ear. I really hated to see them all kicked out of their home and know they will most likely die and that really upsets me, but the tree was already on the ground when he found it and the homeowner wanted it gone and if we didn't do it, he would call someone else who would. There is just so much of it. I am feeling a little overwhelmed. And it's so sticky, but it tastes really good!! I am so excited!

The tree is big enough that I can't get my arms around it. The openings are smaller than the widest part and it goes back about 2 feet on one side and three feet on the other, where we cut it in the middle.

 

[lizflowers42]

Liquid (and non-liquid) gold! Wow! You are BRAVE! I would have been too afraid to go near it, I hate bee stings (but I love bees and honey!)

 

[dixiedragon]

OT: If you like fantasy novels and bees, you may enjoy "Chalice" by Robin McKinely.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0441018742/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
The main character is a bee keeper and uses honey from her hives in her magic.

 

[MirandaH]

I don't know how brave I am, but I am obviously braver than I was this morning, because my husband told me that if I wanted it, I had to help, so I jumped in to do so. Right before we left to come here, I had gotten a pound of bees wax locally, and when he saw what I paid for it, he told me that I was nuts. Then while we were getting it today, he told me that he comes across hives like this about once every month or two and they just put the trunks through the chipper. Now I am considering getting a bee suit and a smoker and having him call me every time he comes across one. Especially if I am going to ruin a pot separating them. I'm so cheap, I would really like to use it more than once, lol.

 

[Ancel]

You lucky lucky brave woman you!!!

 

[Pepsi Girl]

Those pictures are so wonderful ! I don't think I could do it. I would totally wimp out after the first sting! I say you Go Girl!!

 

[neeners]

be careful when mashing around. make sure there aren't any bee larvaes in there. we had some comb from a semi wild hive, and there were larvae all throughout the combs. we just had it in a strainer in a funnel over a jar. it takes a while but it'll strain out.

btw, that looks AMAZING. I'm drooling over the honey you'll be getting. mmmmmmm

 

[reinbeau]

Please, separate out the brood comb from the honey comb. Do not crush it all together, or you'll ruin the honey.

In the future, it would be good if you could find a local beekeeper who could rescue the hive . I know it wasn't on purpose, but a feral hive is worth saving for the queen genetics If you need a referral to a local bee association, you can check this link Beekeeping Association Listing.

I'm a beekeeper and a new soaper, and I believe this is my third post here. Maybe now that you've had a taste of bees like that you might consider using that suit and smoker for a hive of your own. Just sayin'!

 

[MirandaH]

be careful when mashing around. make sure there aren't any bee larvaes in there. we had some comb from a semi wild hive, and there were larvae all throughout the combs. we just had it in a strainer in a funnel over a jar. it takes a while but it'll strain out.

btw, that looks AMAZING. I'm drooling over the honey you'll be getting. mmmmmmm

Yeah, we learned that early. I threw out the pieces that had larvae in it because it wasn't much, so far and I couldn't think of how to get it out without smashing it and the thought of bee guts in the honey makes me kinda sick, lol.

We are about halfway finished with the first straining and there is SOOOOO much honey. I can't believe it. And I went to the store and bought some storage containers that we have been putting the mashed up combs in and I am going to have to strain that again because I can see a ton of honey still in the bottom of that too. Unfortunately, I am 500 miles from home, so I am in my FIL's kitchen and we have taken over the whole thing and it is still just an overwhelming amount. We are also losing a lot of honey in the garbage bags, because there are dead bees in it and it is just too hard to get out of the bags. We got as much out of there as we could and then just said screw it and threw out the bags. If I were home, I would have more patience with it, and I am sad to see how much we are losing, but when you are in someone else's kitchen and no one, including myself, knew we were doing this when we woke up this morning, you try to be as non-invasive as possible and make it as easy for the people who own the house as you can. We have been working on it non-stop since about noon when my husband cut into the tree and all the bees started coming out. It is almost 8 PM now. But I must admit, it took a little while to figure out how to get the combs out in the first place.

 

[MirandaH]

Please, separate out the brood comb from the honey comb. Do not crush it all together, or you'll ruin the honey.

In the future, it would be good if you could find a local beekeeper who could rescue the hive . I know it wasn't on purpose, but a feral hive is worth saving for the queen genetics If you need a referral to a local bee association, you can check this link Beekeeping Association Listing.

I'm a beekeeper and a new soaper, and I believe this is my third post here. Maybe now that you've had a taste of bees like that you might consider using that suit and smoker for a hive of your own. Just sayin'!

I have wanted to be a beekeeper for as long as I can remember. I especially wanted to have bees when I found out about the problems with the bees dying off. It really worries me and it broke my heart today that things went the way that they did. I did try to call around locally to find someone to rescue them before we dove in, but the area that my FIL lives in is VERY rural. Like I said, the internet is in and out and cell phones don't work for 45 miles from where we are. I had to go to a neighbor's house to use the phone to try to find help, but everyone told me they wouldn't know who to call. Even the Sheriff's department. And I just looked at you link and my husband says that the closest one on the list is over 2 hours away. Do you think they would have come??

Thank you so much for the link, tho. I live in a much more populated area and it looks like there are two places that are close by that I could call when my husband find them in the future. The reason I have never tried having bees before is because my ex-husband wouldn't let me. He said it was too dangerous. He is also very freaked out about the soaping ("Don't soap while the kids are home, you are going to blow up the house!"), because of the lye. My new husband thinks it is a great idea. He is a certified arborist and tries his best to save anything he can when he comes across it while trimming and taking down dead trees. We have raised more squirrels than I can count and released them into the wild when they were old enough. He also tries to talk homeowners out of taking down trees that are not dead and instead just trimming them to make them look better, and take out the dead wood and mistletoe. He will be really happy that we have this link now and I will have him program the numbers into his phone for when he is on jobs.

Since we have been doing this today we have also been looking at bee boxes for our house. I would love to get some honey/wax without having to kill the bees in the future. That would be so much fun.

 

[ca_soap]

Lot of good information out there on bees. You may call the closest contact you can find and ask them for future reference. Chances are they won't drive 2 hours for a hive in a tree, at least not for free, but chances also are that they know a beekeeper closer to your area they could refer you to. I have tried saving several of these hives in trees and have yet to have a success story. Easiest and best way to gather them is to catch a swarm during early spring.

 

[MirandaH]

Lot of good information out there on bees. You may call the closest contact you can find and ask them for future reference. Chances are they won't drive 2 hours for a hive in a tree, at least not for free, but chances also are that they know a beekeeper closer to your area they could refer you to. I have tried saving several of these hives in trees and have yet to have a success story. Easiest and best way to gather them is to catch a swarm during early spring.

I kinda doubt they would have come out here either. If we didn't have family here, I would not be here. The only reason I know that the cell phones work 45 miles away is because that is how far you have to drive to get to a grocery store. There isn't even a convenience store here. You literally have to drive 45 miles for a gallon of milk. :/

 

[reinbeau]

Cappings wax is the best for soaping and cosmetics - that's what you get when you take the cappings off the combs when you're going to extract.

Here is the wax I rendered last month. I ended up with 8.5 pounds of lovely clean wax

 

[MirandaH]

That is beautiful reinbeau!!

 

[boyago]

... I really hated to see them all kicked out of their home and know they will most likely die and that really upsets me, but the tree was already on the ground when he found it and the homeowner wanted it gone and if we didn't do it, he would call someone else who would. There is just so much of it.

In case this happens again: Bee keeping and bee clubs have become pretty popular. My uncle is a bee keeping hobyist and member of a club (there are two in his town). He regularly goes out on hive rescues where they take away unwanted hives and relocate them. They are also probably a good resource if you use allot of bees wax in your soaps.
There are also some pretty good instructables on building solar bees wax separators. I may build one for my cousin who also keeps bees.

** Apparently I just replied to page 1, carry on!