Since I posted this last year, we’ve rendered more beeswax from our honeycomb. Now that we have a nice round of filtered beeswax, my next project is to use it to make some homemade medicinal salves like dandelion salve and medicinal yarrow first aid salve. Instead of throwing out the cheesecloth, I placed it in a paper bag in the pantry and plan to reuse it next time we render beeswax. We’ll probably have more honeycomb to render more beeswax in the next few months. If you’re like me and curious to see what was left inside the cheesecloth, open it up and take a peek! Ours had mainly honey bee body parts that were stuck in the comb along with some other random debris.

Now you have a beautiful round of filtered beeswax rendered from your very own honeycomb! I popped the air bubbles and laid the beeswax on a cloth towel on the counter to dry out. Ours had a few air bubbles on the bottom layer that had water trapped in them. Remove the solid round of beeswax from the pan. Step 5: After the beeswax cools and hardens on top of the water, gently push down the edges of the beeswax. Ours had some little bubbles on top that were formed when heating it. As it cools, it will form a solid layer of beeswax on top of the water. The beeswax will form a layer on top of the water when it is melted. Allow the pan and contents to cool, which can take a few hours. Step 4: Remove the cheesecloth from the pot of melted beeswax and water. This will help extract the last of the beeswax from the bundle. Step 3: Once most of the wax appears to have melted out of the cheesecloth bundle, you can use a pair of tongs to squeeze the small bundle left. As the water heats, the beeswax honeycomb with start to melt and seep out of the cheesecloth leaving the debris on the inside of the cheesecloth.Īs the beeswax starts to melt, you will see the yellow liquid wax floating in the water. Place the cheesecloth bundle in the water. Step 2: Fill the pan with water and place it on the stove. Make sure the ends of the cheesecloth are clipped tight so no debris leaks out into the filtered beeswax. Use a chip clip or twisty tie to secure all the ends of the cheesecloth together. Wrap the cheesecloth around the honeycomb forming a bundle with all ends of the cheesecloth gathered snugly in your hand. It doesn’t matter if there is debris like dead honeybees mixed in with the honeycomb since the beeswax will be filtered out. Place the honeycomb in the center of the cheesecloth. Step 1: Lay a large piece of cheesecloth on a flat surface.

fine cheesecloth ( this is the kind we use) old large metal pot (you will end up with some wax on it so you probably don’t want to use your best cooking pot!) That sounded way too time intensive for me! The method we used is much easier and quicker to render beeswax from honeycomb. The second time the beeswax was melted down, it had to be poured through a piece of cheesecloth to strain it. One time it was melted straight into a pot of water and large debris scooped out with a slotted spoon. I read a few online tutorials on rendering beeswax that were very time intensive and required melting the beeswax down two times. This is a one step filtering process so there is no need to melt the wax down and filter it more than once. This whole process took me about 30-45 minutes and then another few hours for the wax to cool.

When he removes the honeycomb, he puts it in a glass jar. He has been collecting the comb for the last few months and we had a decent pile built up. I want to make some more medicinal salves and need beeswax so figured it was the perfect time to try rendering our own beeswax. One other time the bees started building comb out so far they attached the frame to the inside of the box. Sometimes they start building comb on top of the frames. Anytime he finds honeycomb that the bees built in odd places he removes it. Once a week my husband goes out to to our beehives to do a hive inspection. I receive a small commission when a product is purchased through these links, at no additional charge to you.

Honeycomb wax