Solar Melters and honey

[KONASDAD]

Recently, I have been using a club members solar melter from betterbee. The $70 version. It works very well. My only complaint is the pan area can only hold a small tray and it fills up quickly, limiting the amount i can melt per day. the pan area holds a large chinese takeout container. Anyways, my question deals w/ the honey that is also in the tray. According to a newsletter i received from NJBA, i should not feed the honey back to the bees, b/c it is "cooked" and it will hurt the bees, like overheated sugar water. It does get hot, but i doubt it gets to boiling temps.

Do you agree w/ this advice about not feeding the honey back to the bees? I have been getting about 2-3 lbs a day of this honey and the bees have been obviously devouring it w/in an hour or two.

[Frantz]

I am curious to know this as well. I have  been using the melter that I built and have some honey as well. My melter gets up in the 220 range though pretty quick. So I know that I could boil water in there if needed.
F

[hankdog1]

why don't you just let the bees themselves clean them up before you put them in the melter?

[EasternShore]

My Mentor always lets his girls clean the comb before he melts it. He uses it to distract them while he processes the supers. I got to help him the other day and boy was it FUN! BTW, bee pollen in pure form will give you a major head rush!!!!  :mrgreen:

I ate some comb and the sugar rush was sooo cool. God I love bee's!!!

[sean]

why don't you just let the bees themselves clean them up before you put them in the melter?

thats what i do. i use michael bush's crush and strain set up but just uncap into it. let the cappings drain for a day or two into the bucket below then open up the top bucket for the bees

[johnnybigfish]

 Hey Easternshore!
 Are you sure your not a diabetic?...........(just kidding :) )
 I dont get a sensation like that though...Maybe your bees are getting pollen from a coffee treee..(Or marijuana tree). I eat comb with honey and pollen sometimes when i clean some comb every now and then and all i get are a bunch of bees in my beard going for the drippings!
your friend,
john

[TwT]

why don't you just let the bees themselves clean them up before you put them in the melter?

this is what I do even if I dont use a melter, just pack it for later, always let bee's clean so nothing goes to waste..

[Brian D. Bray]

The Solar wax melter is for melting wax not honey.  Wax should be melt only after every effort has been made to remove any honey residue.  Letting the bees rob it is one way, another is to use a capping bag and place the cappings and honey into the extractor and remove the honey at the end of the extraction process, and 3rd way is just to let it settle out through a strainer.

I just built a solar wax melter from scraps found around the house and dumpster diving.  I spent about $4.00 for the meat loaf pan as a mold to catch the melted wax.

[Cindi]

and dumpster diving.  I spent about $4.00 for the meat loaf pan as a mold to catch the melted wax.

Brian, ah come on, tell us how to get in there!!! smiling, and  ;) ;) ;)   Beautiful and most wonderful day, love our life we live, Cindi

[tillie]

I always clean the wax before putting it in the SWM

I put the dripping frames back in the hives for the bees to clean up.

The wax from the crush and strain bucket (if you've crushed well) drains almost free of honey before the end of the process.  Then I put it in a colander in the sink and spray it with water for about 5 minutes before I think it's honey-free enough for the SWM.

Linda T in Atlanta

[Cindi]

Save the water from the cappings that are rinsed deeply, they are awesome for making any sugar syrup mixture that you may in future use for the bees.  Beautiful and most wonderful days, Cindi