Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => UK / EUROPEAN BEEKEEPING => Topic started by: johnnie1uk on June 14, 2014, 04:42:28 pm

Title: Melting point
Post by: johnnie1uk on June 14, 2014, 04:42:28 pm

Any one any experience of wax foundation melting, what air temperatures were you experiencing.

Title: Re: Melting point
Post by: amun-ra on June 15, 2014, 09:17:26 am

happened in southern australia last year the temps where 40-45c the wax softenes and can no longer support the weight of the honey it contains so colapses drowning the bees in their own honey  or so the story goes

Title: Re: Melting point
Post by: johnnie1uk on June 15, 2014, 11:37:02 am

Thanks for that info - It was 38c here yesterday so fingers crossed their Aircon was on

Title: Re: Melting point
Post by: Wombat2 on February 10, 2016, 06:05:50 pm

Bees keep the internal temp at 34*C so 38 would be OK - wax melts at 62*C

Title: Re: Melting point
Post by: Michael Bush on February 10, 2016, 08:00:36 pm

>Any one any experience of wax foundation melting, what air temperatures were you experiencing.

It can happen almost anytime if it's left in the sun.  If you go here: http://www.bushfarms.com/beesterms.htm#b and look at the entry for beeswax you will see the melting point of beeswax is 145?F (63?C).