cazalea
[Seiko Moderator]
20776
Hmmmmm, now spring has REALLY arrived
One of my few SAVE THE PLANET exercises is recycling beeswax from candles stubs (collected from local churches) and making new candles.
This saves wasting the wax which costs bees a great deal of effort. They have to make and then eat 8-10 lbs of honey to generate a pound of beeswax.
You can of course melt beeswax in a pot on the stove, but that takes energy too and can easily get too hot which ruins the wax. Over the last few years I've refined a solar wax melter. It's basically a mirror-enhanced plastic crate which sits in the sun. The crate is lined with mirror foil plastic, topped with a plastic cover, and sports a mirror to reflect more sun into the crate.
SO TO GET TO THE POINT OF THE STORY
I used to keep bees, about 25 years ago, and still consider them my friends. So it wasn't too tough for me to brush them off the mirror, lift the lid, and rearrange the melter to make a bee apartment. No protection....
Now they have a door to go in and out of, and I made an overlapping roof because the weatherman is promising rain tomorrow and I don't want them to drown.
Yahoo! he cries, as he leaps off my arm and heads for the new home...
Today I brought home a bunch of candles to melt, and when I lifted off the carefully closed lid of my melter, I found it full of bees!
They weren't there earlier today! Apparently looking for a new home they may have smelled some residual beeswax and dropped in to check it out.
They weren't there earlier today! Apparently looking for a new home they may have smelled some residual beeswax and dropped in to check it out.
The bees were mostly on the outside of the box, on the back and sides, but a few hundred had made their way inside.
Swarming bees are generally quite peaceable, but Kudos to a terrified Mrs C for taking these pictures before she ran inside.
I used to keep bees, about 25 years ago, and still consider them my friends. So it wasn't too tough for me to brush them off the mirror, lift the lid, and rearrange the melter to make a bee apartment. No protection....
Now they have a door to go in and out of, and I made an overlapping roof because the weatherman is promising rain tomorrow and I don't want them to drown.
BTW - As Seiko moderator, I am wearing a GS SBGW033 in case you were wondering. It seemed to interest the bees (humming?) and worked just fine.
Yahoo! he cries, as he leaps off my arm and heads for the new home...
Cazalea
PS -- here is the rest of the candle-making story, for those who care to read on...
You can see I have a white metal grille in here, that is topped by a paper towel, unto which I load the candle stubs
The device is on a lawn chair which revolves to follow the sun, and can tilt to optimize the angle of the suns rays. When all the wax is melted, gravity encourages it to flow through the paper towel, leaving wicks and soot behind (and making an excellent fire starter).
The device is on a lawn chair which revolves to follow the sun, and can tilt to optimize the angle of the suns rays. When all the wax is melted, gravity encourages it to flow through the paper towel, leaving wicks and soot behind (and making an excellent fire starter).
Yes, I'm a McGyver sort of guy.
A big aluminum tray 1/2 filled with water catches the wax. The water keeps the wax from turning into a solid brick that I can't remove. Note the lovely sea shell frame on the mirror (scrounged from back garden).
I pour the wax into molds that give me 2 oz bricks.
These are easy to store and produce about one 10-12" candle apiece. I think last year I reclaimed about 150 lbs of wax worth $10-15 a pound.
When we have a rainy day I get out the molds and can make about 50 candles in a morning.
A big aluminum tray 1/2 filled with water catches the wax. The water keeps the wax from turning into a solid brick that I can't remove. Note the lovely sea shell frame on the mirror (scrounged from back garden).
I pour the wax into molds that give me 2 oz bricks.
These are easy to store and produce about one 10-12" candle apiece. I think last year I reclaimed about 150 lbs of wax worth $10-15 a pound.
When we have a rainy day I get out the molds and can make about 50 candles in a morning.
Hmmmmm, now spring has REALLY arrived
One of my few SAVE THE PLANET exercises is recycling beeswax from candles stubs (collected from local churches) and making new candles. This saves wasting the wax which costs bees a great deal of effort. They have to make and then eat 8-10 lbs of honey to...
So if I’m getting this right…
The conservation part is either giving the bees a home free of charge or re using the wax so they don’t have to make more?…either way amazing!!!
I'm not sure I'm ready to become a landlord again -- bees take some constant effort
But we'll wait til the storm blows over and see what transpires... I don't want them exterminated, that's for sure. ...
Taking jobs away from bees...
...don't they have a union? The buzz in the union hall can't be good...
You are beyond Mc Gyver
By chance, I will start keeping bees in a month or so. We might get another bout of cold here before then. I am quite excited and curious to see how this hobby develops. Goal is to make honey but we shall see whether candles are on the menu at some point ...
From a 3-level hive we could get 100-200 lbs honey
back in the 70’s and 80’s, with hybrid Italian honey bees, before the invasion of “killer bees” and hives dying off. It all depends on the weather and presence of flowers around the hive. This swarm is quite docile, and has tiny worker bees. I will check ...