Hive still has bees

We are nearing the end of January with 10 days to go.  I haven't seen any January thaw however for which I was waiting before looking in on the girls.

But if you remember the cedar pillows I put in an empty super to catch any condensation before it drips onto the bees and kills then...I was concerned it needed to be changed.  We had a day that was over 40 degrees over the weekend so quickly changed the pillow, which was wet but not too wet yet.

While there, I put my ear down and hear them buzzing below.  That was good enough for me.  Back on the cover went and I secured the board over the top and tucked in some extra insulation I had added to one side of the hive to block wind during the really cold spell.

Getting the wax ready for candles

For the past year or two, I've been saving any beeswax that comes off the hive.  I just put it into a freezer bag and freeze it until I'm ready to clean it and get it ready for use.  A few weeks ago, I spent some time cleaning the wax and melting it down.

1) First I wash it in cool water (too hot and it'll melt).  Here I'm just trying to remove the honey stuck to the wax.

2) After cleaning, I dried it off as best I could using paper towels or letting it just sit on the towels

3) Melt the wax.  At this point, it will have lots of stuff mixed in include parts of bees, whole bees (only a few), pollen and even wood scrapings.

4) Once melted, strain it through paper towels to catch everything but the wax itself.

5) I read that empty milk cartons are good to use because after the wax dries, you can cut away the container.  So I used an empty milk carton to try it.  It worked great.  Only I didn't need to cut it away. The wax, once dried, came out easily into a square that was 1-2 inches think.  That's a good size for when you are ready to melt them later on.  A half and half container would work too, giving you a narrower chuck of wax to work with for other projects.

6) Put the wax away until candle-making day.

Coming soon!