When wondering what to do with wax

Any natural beekeeper practising a crush and strain approach to honey harvest,  any who have removed warped combs, or just downsized for winter by removing empty comb, will at some point find themselves with something of an abundance of wax.

Annoyingly, when I was starting out last year wax was something I coveted only slightly less than bees. Wax enabled me to weatherproof my hive (by mixing with linseed oil), to rub around the inside of the hive to make a more attractive home to the bees, to
embed upon the comb guides to aid in straight comb. All of this I could buy but what I wanted more than anything was some old comb to include in bait hives.  Old brood comb above all other things (including queen pheromone) is most successful in attracting a swarm.

Looking back on this shortage is a little odd now I have wax coming out of my ears (apologies a poorly chosen euphemism *yuck*). I harvested a relatively modest amount of wax this year in reducing the hives for winter (about 15 combs in all).

First I tried just melting it all in a saucepan of water. I do not suggest using your best saucepans! Anything you use to prepare wax should be something that you never want to use again for anything else... ever.. I also used a camping stove so as not to ruin the range cooker. Once melted pour the contents through a sieve (that you never want to use again for anything else) or some cheese cloth. Anything that will filter out the particulates.

For a few combs this works just fine. As the wax cools it floats to the top with any remaining rubbish on the bottom. Bigger projects however require bigger thinking.
If working with wax is something you're interested in there are plenty of plans on the Internet for wax extraction in solar and steam (using wallpaper steamers) extractors. Here is my home-made attempt at a steam wax extractor using a packing box and a wallpaper stripper. It worked surprisingly well and cost nothing beyond what I already had.

Next year I intend to build an extraction hive I can put the combs in and attach the steamer to. Once you have your wax it's fun time. I am by no means an expert like Judy Earl (as reported on Emily Scott's blog) but have really enjoyed tinkering.

My first wax product attempt was a basic lip balm.
1 tablespoon of wax
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (so it would be green).
1 teaspoon of honey
5 drops of peppermint oil.

It was a little experiment using things i already had. I mixed them together in and old (but cleaned out) sauce jar in a saucepan of water on the hob. I was quite pleased with the outcome, as were many of my work colleagues who got a free gift the next day. My wife however was ridiculously excited. The next day I came home to an ebay bill for the following products.

Six different essential oils, cocoa butter, jars of different sizes, borax (tut tut), three different carrier oils (?), a kindle book of bee products. Beekeeping has thus far failed to interest my wife in any way. The making of home-made cosmetics however...that she could get on board with.

Next up. My wife wanted to make a body butter (I don't really know what this is). We found a recipe, pinterest appears to be a huge resource for this, and set to work. The recipe called for water and borax to be added. As a biochemist I recognise water as a possible source of bacterial contamination and borax as something you use to scrub your steps. The borax is probably to emulsify the oil and water allowing them to mix. I wasn't too happy with this so thought of a different way. So was born the 'Lavender and Vodka Body Butter'. I am told it works well, though for what I am still unsure :)

Taking this another step I thought a lighter lip balm could be approached the same way. Behold the resulting Sloe gin lip balm.

This is:
1 tablespoon wax
3 tablespoons oil (in this case white grape oil but olive is fine)
1 tablespoon sloe gin.
This mix requires whisking as it cools (I used 2x bamboo skews). This made 4x 5ml pots and apparently is more of a lip gloss! Who knew!

We have also managed to make a sleep balm, containing oils from lavender, chamomile, valerian, bergamot, and orange.

To be honest whilst making it the smell was so powerful as to be nausea inducing. The following day when the mists had cleared and the wax had set the smell was much more pleasant.

For a beekeeper the winter is a time of fretting and carpentry. Both could well be aided by some well worked wax.