@@brucesbeesyeah it's awesome apparently, I have a local gardener that loves it for his composting and he asked me when I was going to have some a couple of days ago 🤣
Biochar it. Raw slumgum ok fertilizer, but GREAT as a biochar. The process eliminates the soluble salts that damage the plant growth. Great fertilizer as biochar. Good video friend
We like new🤩toys😏tools.👍Looks good Bruce, Blessed Lords Day buddy... Oh ya that heating unite will have a good power drain to it, you need that heavy contractor grade core for that length and amount of power draw. New tool/toys are fun.😁I wonder what it would look like ran a 2nd time, I think they use the cleanest bees wax for Church candles.
It is super clean now. Except for the last little cake. I learned some things about electrical cords through this process. Glad I didn’t burn anything down.
Hi Bruce , My idea is , dry the slum gum down as much as possible , use it in the bottom of swarm traps to add smell .. I always add old frames for smell ... I would think looking in the inside bee cavity you will find bee debris in the bottom . I use scraping from old frames it works great .. I have a old Kelly wax melter .. This looks like you get all the wax out . Cant wait to try it .. Thank you Third year bee keeper started with 2 ...now have 26 .. Hooked
Once you start getting wax out of the top valve then drain a 1 gallon out of the bottom valve. This will keep water out of your top valve. It will lower the wax line inside the tank below the top valve.
I think that is a good idea. Jed from Thorne MFG contacted me this morning and that is basically what I need to do. Too much water in there he says. But I like the idea of draining from the bottom valve to lower it to the level of perfectly clean wax. Also spoke to Mike Barry. Similar recommendations. The second pour went much better when I did not have as much water to remove. Work in progress…
Nice tank Bruce. Similar to my Maxant except larger and mine isn’t water jacketed. I love the clean wax blocks. Makes for great candles that sell pretty well.
Hi from central Otago southern New Zealand Bruce 👋 i love wax especially when it's clean and light, its just amazing. Those bees have noses that would beat a dog hands down once you start heating honey and wax in a melter they'll come from Timbuktu to get at it😂 that double jacket melter looks great 😃 nice video 👍😃
Yore right about the bees lol. I love beautiful clean beeswax. This system simplifies the process for sure. Wish I had more wax to melt so I could perfect the process even more!
I work in maintenance and deal with heated jackets in a wax injection mold process. What went wrong with your original heater, we have them in presses that last year's. great video Bruce.
I am not sure but Jed replaced it. I wonder if possibly the issue was the cord and not the heater. Either way the new one worked perfectly. I am no electrician but learned a lot through this process about the importance of not overloading the cords. Luckily I didn’t burn anything down!
From 8 of January until 15th I do this every year. I also do my own sheets of wax manually A week of job Rarely I left over with any beeswax to do some candles
Thanks for checking in. I am excited to have it and wish I had more to process this year now that I am figuring things out. Yeah I think the slum should be good for gardening but looking forward to seeing what folks use it for.
@@brucesbees love that you are saving the rest of us from some of the learning curves. I was surprised there is not many video tutorials on the Thorne Wax melter...thanks man
I'm pretty sure people use the slum to "paint" the insides of swarm traps. I assume it needs to be mixed with something to kind of liquify it a little I'm just not sure what
Interesting. Makes sense but not sure how I would paint it. I think most people end up a significant amount of wax in their slum. Which would make it easy to paint if melted down. 🤔
Hi Bruce, thank you for the great video. I was thinking that a see through water gauge would be helpful to judge where the water line/slum gum and wax is?
Yes I think that would be great. Still have some tweaking of the process to do to be most efficient but the second pour was much better than the first after I drained a bunch of that water out.
Hello Bruce now that you have all the major trash out of the wax . Now you can clean out your melter real Good then put just your clean blocks of wax back in an run it back through an still use your cloth an that will make some very very clean blocks of wax . On that melter I don’t remember if you use water in the second cleaning or not . Kamon or Ian could answer that question for you . Rerunning it back thru again to clean it then you could also get the blocks of wax closer to the weight you were wanting also . Good luck . Thanks for the video. Thanks
Thanks for the tip. The wax was perfectly clean except that last tiny cake. It took a little longer using the cloth but that cleaned it up nicely. It might be quicker to just run it through the metal strainer and then clean the melter really good and melt it all down again. But by using this method the wax ended up perfectly clean. I did have to scrape just a tiny bit of dirt off the bottom of some of it but that was not big deal. Wish I had more wax to play with. Between you, Mile Barry, Jed Thorne and others I have had some great suggestions. Looking forward to seeing the continues comments. Thanks so much for watching and for checking in!
Fantastic video. The waste might be a good fertilizer. Can you account for the amount of hives and time needed to save up all this beewax? Thank you for sharing, learned a lot!
Yes! And I like the fact that you can control the temp and keep it from getting too hot. Lots of things to like about it but there are still some things to work out to make it more efficient.
We just finished processing our wax for the season and had just under 9lbs from our hives. I can only imagine how much work it is at your scale! I do find my wax can get a bit foamy and white if the heat gets warm enough to make bubbles in the water. I filter with my H700 Dixie cloths but it takes much longer for it to go through the filter. It looks good! Making candle is a good money maker you just have to invest in a lot of molds to do it efficiently or just do a small batch after work each day. Having smaller chunks of wax for that makes it go quicker but you have so much you shouldn’t have any issues except maybe getting the blocks small enough to get in your final melter for wax. I wonder what would happen if you put the flour sack fabric on the bottom of the slum gum pusher downer thing so the wax has to go up through it as it melts. Maybe it would do a good job and remove a step. Thanks for sharing!
I know right? I put it off for a long time and finally pulled the trigger. He also makes a smaller one but for the price this larger one is a better deal.
Flour sack cloth. My dad was born in 1918 and he said his mom my grandma would make their underwear out of flour sacks,cause back then they were real silky and made great garments. They were in town during the depression but grandpa kept two milk cows with chickens and rabbits in their two car garage.
I run something like that. But I press the wax it as it melts. My set up I use some weights to sink my screen. Keeping most of the sum gum on the bottom of the tank. It will save you steps. My tanks I wrap with the aluminum foil bubble wrap. David’s Honey
If you have a water jacket you don’t need to put water in with the wax. The water jacket keeps a uniform temperature so you don’t have to worry about burning the wax. Kind of how you would put wax in a can and then into a pot of water to melt without having water in the wax. I also assume that once the wax is melted you put that screen in to push the slum to the bottom then start draining the wax. That way the bulk of the slum is trapped on the bottom.
Theoretically true but the water I think helps separate the wax from the impurities. You are correct. The screen is used to keep the slum down. There is a little bit that percolates up and through though so the wax is not perfectly clean. When I process my next batch of next year I will probably try some different things. Thanks for the tip!
Actually I had another think about it and it’s because when you move the container as well, I know it doesn’t matter but if you want to do some nice blocks to sell try using a container to pour into the molds not straight out of the melter.
Yes that’s what I do. I melt them down and put them in molds for nice blocks to sell. I have one pound and one oz silicone molds and am thinking about getting some molds to try making some candles.
I'd take the slum out of the tank, add water until 2" above the 2nd water jacket, take wax out by tree & put in tank and add the 14 lbs of wax already recovered back in tank, turn on water heater to melt wax, insert your slum strainer and let wax cool down overnight, walla you have a fairly clean chunk of wax that might need a little of filtering.
With so much wax to run I would keep the water level below the top valve. You should have clean wax right away. When the wax starts to get dirty from the slum on top, just stop and add more wax until the next day. On the last run add more water to above the valve and deal with the slum at that point.
Thanks for the tip. I started with the water below the level of the top valve but when the wax melted the honey dropped into the water raising its level. It is a little tricky but the second run was a lot better. But the goal would be to have it just below that valve as you say. Maybe I will get it figured out one of these days. Thanks again for watching and for the input. 🐝😎
@hlyautey yes but they still have a little honey in there. The spinner we have is old. The cappings are mostly dry but still a little wet. We will get it honed in. The second batch when I lowered the water level went much better.
Just a thought. Wouldn't it make more sense to melt it, use the hand strainer on the top gunk, let it completely solidify, take out the built in strainer with the wax on top, then clean the melter and run it through a second time before draining the wax? I feel that is a more efficient way to get clean wax. If you have a high yield of 30+ pounds at a time then it might be difficult but it's just a thought.
Please look up resistance in electrical wire. Having a power cord running that distance has too much resistance based on the required draw of that heater. Your heater will not last. Move that melter closer to the power source like in a basement.
@brucesbees thanks Bruce. Went down a rabbit hole with this Hurricane on YT and got to wondering. I'm in Philly and have friends who are responding to the area. Maybe we'll meet at the conference
Hi Bruce Bees. Those "Bees will Smell you Cooking (Warming) that Wax" ! I would guess they will find that Honey Water you dumped out. Tip: That pure Wax is Gold, Literally in that it will have No Residue or Pesticides in it. So make your own Foundation Sheets ! You can Buy a x2 Sheet Silicon Mould : Top & Bottom Sheet, that Imprints the "Cell" Pattern onto each Sheet made ! Your Bees will love those Sheets over the stuff now made and comes from China. (You don't know what Environmental Toxins and Chemicals are in their Imported Wax ! 😠) If you want 'Natural Honey Comb' then add a "Cut Starter Strip" off your DIY Foundation Sheet, and let the Bees fill that Frame Naturally. Win, win. Hope all are Safe with that awful Hurricane Milton coming in as we speak. Be Safe ! 👍 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2024 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Here in Scotland 🏴 I would use more of that Natural Wax for High End use : Foundation, Hand and Lip Balms (Salves) Wood Polish and the like. Use Cheap Chinese Wax for Candles ! Tip 2 : Clean up that Icky Wax Block by using a Sharp Knife and Scrape off all that Dirt. Remelt and Strain again. Through eg real Old Natural Fibre* then that yucky waxy Rag* can be torn up and used as a Fire Lighter in your Bee Smoker ! Oh, and if you have Chickens they like that 'Slum Gum' it's full of Protein 'Bits' aka dead Bee Parts. . . 🤭 Hope this helps your process that lovely Wax. 😎
Tip 3 I wouldn't recommend Heating that Water over 50C or 122F otherwise the Wax on Cooling has a Gritty, Granular feel ! See "Mr.Ed" on his Bee Channel, at that Abbey. He set his "Massive Wax Melter Kettle" to a to higher Temp AND stuff up a whole lot of Wax, where it got to Hot🔥 Think his System doesn't have a Walled Hot Water Jacket, more of an 'Element' on the Base' of his Kettle, that Slopes to the pouring Tap (Faucet.) Guess that last few Inches of Wax didn't have enough Water under it, and it kind of Scorched (Cooked) the Wax Particles. . . Oops ! Do once, do never again ! 🤭
Tip 4 Any "Slum Gum" will make a Fabulous 'Swarm Lure if applied inside a Bait Hive' ! Literally Paint that Icky Mess that Smells of 1000% Bees on all Woodware. (While Wax is still Warm.) And those "Free Bees" will definitely find You over the Neighbours place ! 👍
Thanks for the tips. I will say though that the water has to be hotter than 122 degrees F as beeswax melting point is something like 144degrees. And to really get it all melted I had to get the temp on up to around 175. It turned out great though. Definitely did not want to get it hot enough to burn it.
That press screen is the bees knees! One of the reasons to grow is to be able to afford cool gear! So you dont have bees in the back yard anymore? Did I miss a video? Sounds like a story.
@SM-yr7ygSPLHG I can send you one if you want. Will have to weigh it because they are all different sizes. But the cost per pound will be the same as listed on the website.
Email me on the website and I will see what I can do. Might be easier just to send you the number of regular one pound blocks you want since they are already on the site. I will make sure they come from the wax melted in this video.
They’re expensive but do yourself a favor and get a 10 gauge cord and you won’t build up the amps. Always feel your cord to make sure it’s not getting hot.
@brucesbees the heater pulls 15amp. 1800w ÷ 120v = 15 amps. With a long cord it might draw slightly higher. The #12 cord is good for 20 amps. So you should be ok there. However, the plug you are plugging it into, check what size breaker it is on. If it's a 20 you're ok. If it's a 15, your house internal wiring will probably be #14 wire, so it might be getting warm when you are using the melter. Just keep that in mind. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for sharing Bruce. I use your crock pot method with only 6 double hives its all i need. Your videos are always informative , thanks again.
Yes it works well. I just have too much wax now and decided to pull the trigger on this setup.
Hey Bruce. That sludge should be awesome for compost since it’s all organic material.
I think you are right. May give it a try. Need to do a little research on it.
@@brucesbeesyeah it's awesome apparently, I have a local gardener that loves it for his composting and he asked me when I was going to have some a couple of days ago 🤣
@Manuherikiabeekeeping I need to give it a try!
Biochar it. Raw slumgum ok fertilizer, but GREAT as a biochar. The process eliminates the soluble salts that damage the plant growth. Great fertilizer as biochar.
Good video friend
Thanks, Bruce. Still deciding what to buy the Thorne or Maxant wax melter.
I really like the double jacketed tank. No exposed element.
Great looking wax Bruce! I’m like you, I love the smell of clean Bee’s wax!
Yes it is awesome. Another among product of the hive. The fact that bees even make wax amazes me.
That looks like really good stuff fornthe garden
Really cool! I'm going to do this. We have a fair bit of wax and slum from spinning honey. Thank you for the tips.
Thanks for the video. Sitting here watching for another hurricane to hit us. Keep us Florida people in your prayers. I appreciate you.
Sending prayers 🙏🏻
Will do. Hand in there.
Prayers
Nice video Bruce. We only got about 30 lbs this year. We make a few candles and wax some frames with it.
Awesome. It is a valuable resource that I have certainly underutilized over the years.
Fantastic!
Thank you for do what you do.
You’re welcome. Thanks for the support!
We like new🤩toys😏tools.👍Looks good Bruce, Blessed Lords Day buddy...
Oh ya that heating unite will have a good power drain to it, you need that heavy contractor grade core for that length and amount of power draw. New tool/toys are fun.😁I wonder what it would look like ran a 2nd time, I think they use the cleanest bees wax for Church candles.
It is super clean now. Except for the last little cake. I learned some things about electrical cords through this process. Glad I didn’t burn anything down.
Amazing. Thanks for loved it.
Awesome thanks!
Oh I’m finding a new love for the wax! It’s so satisfying!!
Yes! I need to make some candles.
@@brucesbees I’ve made some they are pretty cool. Amazon has some cool molds for candles
Hi Bruce , My idea is , dry the slum gum down as much as possible , use it in the bottom of swarm traps to add smell .. I always add old frames for smell ... I would think looking in the inside bee cavity you will find bee debris in the bottom . I use scraping from old frames it works great .. I have a old Kelly wax melter .. This looks like you get all the wax out . Cant wait to try it ..
Thank you Third year bee keeper started with 2 ...now have 26 .. Hooked
Sounds like a good idea I like that idea
I like that idea. Thanks! And yes these bugs in a box can be addicting!
Once you start getting wax out of the top valve then drain a 1 gallon out of the bottom valve. This will keep water out of your top valve. It will lower the wax line inside the tank below the top valve.
I think that is a good idea. Jed from Thorne MFG contacted me this morning and that is basically what I need to do. Too much water in there he says. But I like the idea of draining from the bottom valve to lower it to the level of perfectly clean wax. Also spoke to Mike Barry. Similar recommendations. The second pour went much better when I did not have as much water to remove. Work in progress…
@@brucesbees
That is so cool!!!
Thanks! This upgrade will really help us I think.
Nice tank Bruce. Similar to my Maxant except larger and mine isn’t water jacketed. I love the clean wax blocks. Makes for great candles that sell pretty well.
Yes. I am obsessed with the wax being perfectly clean. Thanks for checking in my friend!
Hi from central Otago southern New Zealand Bruce 👋 i love wax especially when it's clean and light, its just amazing. Those bees have noses that would beat a dog hands down once you start heating honey and wax in a melter they'll come from Timbuktu to get at it😂 that double jacket melter looks great 😃 nice video 👍😃
Yore right about the bees lol. I love beautiful clean beeswax. This system simplifies the process for sure. Wish I had more wax to melt so I could perfect the process even more!
Great video Bruce as always!!
Thank you!
That looks like it would be great compost.
I bet it would be good for flowers and plants!
@@markespich8574 it also
Makes a great fire starter for like campfire camping
Great video Bruce!!
Thank you!
Great video Bruce! Thank you
Thanks for checking in!
Nice, thanks Bruce !!
Thanks for checking in!
Impressive how clean it came out. Elizabeth dumped a liquid wax block out in the pine straw one time. haha
Haha. Yeah should have known better. Sometimes we probably all get a little impatient.
Impressive piece of equipment. .
I agree. Worth the price if you have a lot to process.
I work in maintenance and deal with heated jackets in a wax injection mold process. What went wrong with your original heater, we have them in presses that last year's. great video Bruce.
I am not sure but Jed replaced it. I wonder if possibly the issue was the cord and not the heater. Either way the new one worked perfectly. I am no electrician but learned a lot through this process about the importance of not overloading the cords. Luckily I didn’t burn anything down!
@@brucesbees That's the main thing
This is awesome! Makes melting wax fun!
Yes! Much better than crock pots! Wish I had more to process.
From 8 of January until 15th I do this every year. I also do my own sheets of wax manually A week of job Rarely I left over with any beeswax to do some candles
Cool new Toy Bruce, that is going to be a great tool for ya.👍Grats on the nice bees wax, I wonder if that subgum might be good for gardens?
Thanks for checking in. I am excited to have it and wish I had more to process this year now that I am figuring things out. Yeah I think the slum should be good for gardening but looking forward to seeing what folks use it for.
The left over cloth will make good fire starters. Also add a close nipple to the elbow and you'll get less spatter.
Thanks for the tips.
awesome video...my Thorne 8 gallon wax melter is still in the box...this video helps...
Awesome. Thanks for watching Stan. Lots of lessons learned here. Wish I had more to process now that I am figuring it out.
@@brucesbees love that you are saving the rest of us from some of the learning curves. I was surprised there is not many video tutorials on the Thorne Wax melter...thanks man
@StanGore-mk8ow I hear ya lol. I’m sure everyone will have a learning curve but maybe it won’t be quite so steep after watching this video.
Great video! New subscriber here, just curious, how many frames did that take to get 90lbs of wax?
Oh man I am not sure. These were the cappings from our summer harvest. ua-cam.com/play/PL8TUJQAHFlHuqM95vIUUTisCXoXUyqd_l.html&si=5xLdelOXoJBzRt1N
I'm pretty sure people use the slum to "paint" the insides of swarm traps. I assume it needs to be mixed with something to kind of liquify it a little I'm just not sure what
Interesting. Makes sense but not sure how I would paint it. I think most people end up a significant amount of wax in their slum. Which would make it easy to paint if melted down. 🤔
@@brucesbees You can probably boil it with water and then just use a paintbrush and coat the inside of boxes with
@CentralKyBees yeah that might work. Makes sense.
@@brucesbees yea it did to me lol
Thanks for sharing this video.
The engineer in me wonders if you could save electricity by wrapping insulation around the melter.
Maybe a little but I have no idea how much.
Hi Bruce, thank you for the great video. I was thinking that a see through water gauge would be helpful to judge where the water line/slum gum and wax is?
Yes I think that would be great. Still have some tweaking of the process to do to be most efficient but the second pour was much better than the first after I drained a bunch of that water out.
@@SIBEEMAN it would
Be BUT BUT if you got wax inside of it it would make a big mess that could not be cleaned out or with a lot of headache.
Beautiful
Thanks for checking in!
Hello Bruce now that you have all the major trash out of the wax . Now you can clean out your melter real
Good then put just your clean blocks of wax back in an run it back through an still use your cloth an that will make some very very clean blocks of wax . On that melter I don’t remember if you use water in the second cleaning or not . Kamon or Ian could answer that question for you . Rerunning it back thru again to clean it then you could also get the blocks of wax closer to the weight you were wanting also . Good luck . Thanks for the video. Thanks
Thanks for the tip. The wax was perfectly clean except that last tiny cake. It took a little longer using the cloth but that cleaned it up nicely. It might be quicker to just run it through the metal strainer and then clean the melter really good and melt it all down again. But by using this method the wax ended up perfectly clean. I did have to scrape just a tiny bit of dirt off the bottom of some of it but that was not big deal. Wish I had more wax to play with. Between you, Mile Barry, Jed Thorne and others I have had some great suggestions. Looking forward to seeing the continues comments. Thanks so much for watching and for checking in!
Fantastic video. The waste might be a good fertilizer. Can you account for the amount of hives and time needed to save up all this beewax? Thank you for sharing, learned a lot!
I had approximately 100 production colonies last year.
Nice video. Sure saves some time vs a fish cooker.
Yes! And I like the fact that you can control the temp and keep it from getting too hot. Lots of things to like about it but there are still some things to work out to make it more efficient.
We just finished processing our wax for the season and had just under 9lbs from our hives. I can only imagine how much work it is at your scale! I do find my wax can get a bit foamy and white if the heat gets warm enough to make bubbles in the water. I filter with my H700 Dixie cloths but it takes much longer for it to go through the filter. It looks good! Making candle is a good money maker you just have to invest in a lot of molds to do it efficiently or just do a small batch after work each day. Having smaller chunks of wax for that makes it go quicker but you have so much you shouldn’t have any issues except maybe getting the blocks small enough to get in your final melter for wax. I wonder what would happen if you put the flour sack fabric on the bottom of the slum gum pusher downer thing so the wax has to go up through it as it melts. Maybe it would do a good job and remove a step. Thanks for sharing!
Hmm I like those suggestions! I need to order some molds. They are pricy though. Have never made candles but plan to give it a try.
Just wanted to say nice to meet you at the Alabama beekeeper conference.
You too. Thanks for checking in!
Not sure I can justify one but sure do want one!
I know right? I put it off for a long time and finally pulled the trigger. He also makes a smaller one but for the price this larger one is a better deal.
I would love to have my own bees wax I just made a load of bees wax candles and salves and use so so much of it
I plan to make some candles but need to get some molds ordered. The wax is so beautiful.
Compost it and use some for smoker. Very nice smell
Flour sack cloth. My dad was born in 1918 and he said his mom my grandma would make their underwear out of flour sacks,cause back then they were real silky and made great garments. They were in town during the depression but grandpa kept two milk cows with chickens and rabbits in their two car garage.
That’s a cool story. I live things like that. Things were different back then for sure!
Cool !!
Thanks!
for your molds...you have a link for those? so nice1!
The containers are 6qt Sterilite type containers. We got these at Target and also got some at Walmart. Very affordable.
That was great, thankyou😅
Thanks for watching!
I wonder if the slum would be any good to mix in with compost?
That’s what folks are saying. Maybe I will put and use it as fertilizer or to help with some flowers or plants.
I run something like that. But I press the wax it as it melts. My set up I use some weights to sink my screen. Keeping most of the sum gum on the bottom of the tank. It will save you steps. My tanks I wrap with the aluminum foil bubble wrap. David’s Honey
Thanks for the tip!
If you have a water jacket you don’t need to put water in with the wax. The water jacket keeps a uniform temperature so you don’t have to worry about burning the wax. Kind of how you would put wax in a can and then into a pot of water to melt without having water in the wax.
I also assume that once the wax is melted you put that screen in to push the slum to the bottom then start draining the wax. That way the bulk of the slum is trapped on the bottom.
Theoretically true but the water I think helps separate the wax from the impurities.
You are correct. The screen is used to keep the slum down. There is a little bit that percolates up and through though so the wax is not perfectly clean. When I process my next batch of next year I will probably try some different things.
Thanks for the tip!
Some people say the sharp edges on the blocks of wax are from pouring the wax while it’s a little too hot
Could be. But these are not the final product. Will pour into molds as I sell blocks of wax and hope to make some candles as well.
Actually I had another think about it and it’s because when you move the container as well, I know it doesn’t matter but if you want to do some nice blocks to sell try using a container to pour into the molds not straight out of the melter.
Yes that’s what I do. I melt them down and put them in molds for nice blocks to sell. I have one pound and one oz silicone molds and am thinking about getting some molds to try making some candles.
I'd take the slum out of the tank, add water until 2" above the 2nd water jacket, take wax out by tree & put in tank and add the 14 lbs of wax already recovered back in tank, turn on water heater to melt wax, insert your slum strainer and let wax cool down overnight, walla you have a fairly clean chunk of wax that might need a little of filtering.
That is pretty much what I did. Worked well.
very good content. so what are you going to do with it? Sell it? how much does it sell for?
I will sell some of it and I am going to try my hand at candle making. The price varies depending on what you want. brucesbees.com
With so much wax to run I would keep the water level below the top valve. You should have clean wax right away. When the wax starts to get dirty from the slum on top, just stop and add more wax until the next day. On the last run add more water to above the valve and deal with the slum at that point.
Thanks for the tip. I started with the water below the level of the top valve but when the wax melted the honey dropped into the water raising its level. It is a little tricky but the second run was a lot better. But the goal would be to have it just below that valve as you say. Maybe I will get it figured out one of these days. Thanks again for watching and for the input. 🐝😎
@@brucesbees You don't spin your cappings?
@hlyautey yes but they still have a little honey in there. The spinner we have is old. The cappings are mostly dry but still a little wet. We will get it honed in. The second batch when I lowered the water level went much better.
@@brucesbees I'm curious, how many hives do you manage? thanks
@hlyautey I manage Typically between 100 and 150. This year I have about 100 production colonies.
Was it better smelling than trying to boil it down?
Yes.
hey bruce ...what exact bottom valve did you have to buy to screw into side? just use regular plumbers tape for threads?
Are you referring to the elbow joint? The valves all came with the unit.
Just a thought. Wouldn't it make more sense to melt it, use the hand strainer on the top gunk, let it completely solidify, take out the built in strainer with the wax on top, then clean the melter and run it through a second time before draining the wax? I feel that is a more efficient way to get clean wax. If you have a high yield of 30+ pounds at a time then it might be difficult but it's just a thought.
Not a bad idea. I actually had too much water in it the first go around. I think it will take a few runs to get the most efficient method figured out.
@@brucesbees Good luck to ya!
Hey Bruce besides applying to foundation what do you use the wax for? Do you sell it?
I plan to sell some of it and also give candle making a try.
Please look up resistance in electrical wire. Having a power cord running that distance has too much resistance based on the required draw of that heater. Your heater will not last. Move that melter closer to the power source like in a basement.
Great video Bruce. Has anyone heard form Kamon? Is he alright? Hasn't posted in a long time!
I think he is fine. He is just super busy I’m sure with bees, life and the conference. It is a huge endeavor.
@brucesbees thanks Bruce. Went down a rabbit hole with this Hurricane on YT and got to wondering. I'm in Philly and have friends who are responding to the area. Maybe we'll meet at the conference
@Clancy-ig8zt maybe so. Thanks for the support and thanks for checking in!
That was the swarm that flew off last year
Hi Bruce Bees.
Those "Bees will Smell you Cooking (Warming) that Wax" !
I would guess they will find that Honey Water you dumped out.
Tip:
That pure Wax is Gold, Literally in that it will have No Residue or Pesticides in it. So make your own Foundation Sheets !
You can Buy a x2 Sheet Silicon Mould : Top & Bottom Sheet, that Imprints the "Cell" Pattern onto each Sheet made ! Your Bees will love those Sheets over the stuff now made and comes from China. (You don't know what Environmental Toxins and Chemicals are in their Imported Wax ! 😠)
If you want 'Natural Honey Comb' then add a "Cut Starter Strip" off your DIY Foundation Sheet, and let the Bees fill that Frame Naturally. Win, win.
Hope all are Safe with that awful Hurricane Milton coming in as we speak. Be Safe ! 👍
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Happy Beekeeping 2024
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Here in Scotland 🏴 I would use more of that Natural Wax for High End use : Foundation, Hand and Lip Balms (Salves) Wood Polish and the like.
Use Cheap Chinese Wax for Candles !
Tip 2 :
Clean up that Icky Wax Block by using a Sharp Knife and Scrape off all that Dirt. Remelt and Strain again. Through eg real Old Natural Fibre* then that yucky waxy Rag* can be torn up and used as a Fire Lighter in your Bee Smoker !
Oh, and if you have Chickens they like that 'Slum Gum' it's full of Protein 'Bits' aka dead Bee Parts. . . 🤭
Hope this helps your process that lovely Wax. 😎
Tip 3
I wouldn't recommend Heating that Water over 50C or 122F otherwise the Wax on Cooling has a Gritty, Granular feel !
See "Mr.Ed" on his Bee Channel, at that Abbey. He set his "Massive Wax Melter Kettle" to a to higher Temp AND stuff up a whole lot of Wax, where it got to Hot🔥
Think his System doesn't have a Walled Hot Water Jacket, more of an 'Element' on the Base' of his Kettle, that Slopes to the pouring Tap (Faucet.)
Guess that last few Inches of Wax didn't have enough Water under it, and it kind of Scorched (Cooked) the Wax Particles. . . Oops ! Do once, do never again ! 🤭
Tip 4
Any "Slum Gum" will make a Fabulous 'Swarm Lure if applied inside a Bait Hive' !
Literally Paint that Icky Mess that Smells of 1000% Bees on all Woodware. (While Wax is still Warm.) And those "Free Bees" will definitely find You over the Neighbours place ! 👍
Thanks for the tips. I will say though that the water has to be hotter than 122 degrees F as beeswax melting point is something like 144degrees. And to really get it all melted I had to get the temp on up to around 175. It turned out great though. Definitely did not want to get it hot enough to burn it.
Yeah the double jacket helps avoid over heating or heating the wax to hot too fast.
Thanks so much for checking in and for all the tips!
do you have a link for flour sack cloth?? :)
My wife night the Flour sack cloth at Walmart I believe.
Thavks Bruce for all the info 👍🤠🐝
Will you make a barbecue sauce with the honey that's draining?
Probably could but no. I just poured it out. It was mixed with water.
@@brucesbees thanks for the reply, I got that idea from the bee whisper
I wonder if the slum is good for garden soil
That is the suggestion that people are making. It is kind of an odd texture. Almost like Peat Moss.
Looks like garden soil
I would suggest throwing it in the compost pile and turning it into just that
I think that is a good idea. Thanks for checking in!
Is slum good for compost?
I think so! It definitely let looks like it would be.
Slum gum can be used as bait in swarm traps, can’t it?
Should be able to. How do you apply it?
That press screen is the bees knees! One of the reasons to grow is to be able to afford cool gear! So you dont have bees in the back yard anymore? Did I miss a video? Sounds like a story.
I have grandkids in the area now and just didn’t want to risk any issues.
Slum gum to the compost bin unless there are chemicals that shouldn't be in the garden from mite treatments?
Nah I think it is good. Thanks for the tip!
I like to buy a block of this wax
brucesbees.com
There is not available… only the 1lbs
Can you listed the bigger one you have 6-9 lbs
@SM-yr7ygSPLHG I can send you one if you want. Will have to weigh it because they are all different sizes. But the cost per pound will be the same as listed on the website.
@@brucesbees perfect 👍 please list there and will buy right away
Thank you 🙏
Email me on the website and I will see what I can do. Might be easier just to send you the number of regular one pound blocks you want since they are already on the site. I will make sure they come from the wax melted in this video.
Struthers charges $18. For five pounds. They are the same shape as yours.
Doesn’t the wax smell like honey. The wax I use from Struthers it smells like honey.
It smells really good and it’s beautiful wax!
They’re expensive but do yourself a favor and get a 10 gauge cord and you won’t build up the amps. Always feel your cord to make sure it’s not getting hot.
I learned my lesson for sure. The cord I got worked perfectly.
@brucesbees the heater pulls 15amp. 1800w ÷ 120v = 15 amps. With a long cord it might draw slightly higher. The #12 cord is good for 20 amps. So you should be ok there. However, the plug you are plugging it into, check what size breaker it is on. If it's a 20 you're ok. If it's a 15, your house internal wiring will probably be #14 wire, so it might be getting warm when you are using the melter. Just keep that in mind. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for the tip. It seemed like everything worked out perfectly after using the 12 gauge cord. Glad I didn’t burn something down.
Dirty water with honey will kill plants, just so your tree does not suddenly wither away.
Thanks for the tip. The tree is a large pine tree that is probably at least 50 or 79 feet tall so I imagine it will be fine. But thanks for the info.
Compost your slum gum for next years garden!
Thanks for the tip!
Melt together and run it Again
I could do that but it is absolutely beautiful now as is. Thanks for checking in!
Slum,firelighters
I like that idea. This basically has no wax in it. Do you think it would still work?
@brucesbees it might work,I'm not sure but some beekeepers use it for fertilisers, as they say in beekeeping nothing goes to waste.
@peterg2569 I may use it for that purpose.
Cut up t shirts
Yes I think that would work!
That’s what I used it worked pretty good!
Put it in a garden