cleaning wax

[Johnny]

newbee question
I use crush and strain method of cleaning honey. The wax I have left has alot of honey left in it.
Why do people wash wax to remove honey from wax? Why not melt wax and honey in a solar melter
then seperate  honey and wax after it is cool.  Can the honey be used to feed bees or is there
something I am missing?  It looks to me like we are wasting alot of good honey by washing wax to
clean honey out of it.
Thanks for all info

[eltalia]

I cannot give an answer to your questions.
I can say I have never used water to wash down comb beyond
maybe washing out some old pollen stores or washing road dust
off them - mixed results with both but it does give the bees a headstart.

I use the solar prep and billy boil method to retrieve product from mangled
comb after cutouts or rescues.

Cheers.

Bill

[little john]

Can the honey be used to feed bees or is there something I am missing?

Beeswax has a melting point range of 62 to 64 deg C (144 F to 147 F).

Excessive heat can have detrimental effects on the nutritional value of honey. Heating up to 37 deg C (98.6 F) causes loss of nearly 200 components, some of which are anti-bacterial. Heating up to 40 deg C (104 F) destroys invertase, an important enzyme. So - heating honey to 62 deg C is going to knacker it completely.

Recommend you wash out the honey from your 'crush & strain', store this wash-water in the freezer, then use it instead of tap water when making up 2:1 for late season feed.
LJ

[Acebird]

Johnny, let your wax drain for a few days and most of the honey will drain out.  Rinse what is left and drink it.You can let the bees drink it or eat it directly without adding water.  If you want to ad some yeast and wait a year you can drink it then.  The worst thing you can do is heat and melt the wax out because then the honey is useless.

[eltalia]

A clarification on my post for Johhny?
The mangled comb my post mentions is an assortment of crushed honey stores, brood
stores not crushed but smashed/wrecked, and dirt/sawdust/timber/leaves along with
whatever else sticks to it all from where it lands.
The wax retrieved I have never gone to the trouble of a final cleansing in a solar melter
as seen on Youtube, I am happy enough with what comes off a single melt on the
gal.iron sheets.
The honey retrieved from the billy boil is minimal in quanity but adds up over time and
a market exists in cattle stores suppliers, used in salt licks I believe.

I read your post as asking around what is common practice for some hobbyists, a method 
of harvesting I cannot advocate for.
Other posts have answered the questions so it is left to me to apologise for "my bad".

Cheers.

Bill

[Johnny]

Bill what is a billy boil?
Little John I will store honey water for sugar water feed.
Is the heated honey ok for bee feed?
thanks for all replies
Johnny

[cao]

After draining, I set my wax cappings out and let the bees clean the leftover honey out of the wax.  They do a good job of removing the honey.  When I melt it down there's not much honey left.

[GSF]

ditto what cao said. I use a home made laughable, but functional, solar wax melter.

[mtnb]

I do as cao said. Sometimes I'll put it in the open and let them clean the rest or I have also bought those cheap aluminum baking pans and fill them with the crushed wax and place directly on a hive that needs it. They clean it bone dry in just a few days.

[Eric Bosworth]

I take the wax after crush and strain and spread it on a cookie sheet for the bees to rob. Then after a few days I melt down and filter it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

[eltalia]

Bill what is a billy boil?
Little John I will store honey water for sugar water feed.
Is the heated honey ok for bee feed?
thanks for all replies
Johnny

Heh... here I am going on about "foreign" language and doing so myself!
Sorry about that Johhny.. it's a "cut and paste" from notes for another post
elsewhere and I missed that term in the proof read. Bummer :-(

"Billy" is an Aussie colloquism for the tin can boiling over an open
fire - as in "billy tea".
I use a common variation, not boiling but warmed enough to have the
sludge retrieved from the gal.iron sheets separate out in a PVC bucket sat
in the water, on a brick and in enough water to just have it want to float
but not. Being careful to choose a quality style bucket, floor
tilers glue buckets are good to go, if cleanable when you get them.
The methods on a good day are fast and mediocre efficient, yet suits my use.

Cheers.

Bill