Newbee question on 2nds honey processing

Thanks in advance. I have a mix of comb and honey comb and squeezings. They are in a double boiler as we speak and on there way to melting temp. Question: Wax goes to the top right? Honey to the bottom of the pot? Ladle out and strain or leave liquid wax in pot and strain there? Honey is left in bottom of pot? Aaaand do the dead bee’s and detritus float in the wax at top or in the honey? Thanks you guys. Dusty

I quite like this youtube video from a true earth mother type. :blush:

By the way, if you do this, you will only get wax, not honey. Crush and strain is a different concept. :wink:

Thanks sister. So heating will not separate wax from Honey. Does it get mixed with the wax?

Thanks sister. So heating will not separate wax from Honey. Does it get mixed with the wax?

Found this link- http://chchbeekeepers.blogspot.com/2012/02/wax-melting-and-oven-honey.html. I think it answers most of what I’m confused about. BTW my father knew and was featured in an article by the people who created Life raft earth which I think was a precursor to Mother Earth News. My folks were 60’s radicals. Dad’s dead. Mom (who lives with me) is 91 and is still a radical, but mostly a giant radical pain in the rump. :slight_smile:

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What happens is complicated. The honey and water soluble stuff will be in the lower “phase”. Lots of the “slumgum” will be there too. Slumgum is a mixture of dead bees, cocoons, bee poop and propolis.

The wax will form most of the upper layer, but if you have not mixed the comb with water, a lot of the slumgum will stay in the wax, and some of the wax will stay in the slumgum/honey mix. If you don’t use a lot of water to purify the wax, it will be very dirty and unusable for most purposes (candles, lip balm etc). It is also impossible to extract good quality honey from comb by heating it.

The way I do it is to separate out the comb. Any which is dark from brood goes straight to rendering, with hot water. No attempt to extract honey. Any which is light goes for crush and strain. After straining off the honey, the remaining wax is then rendered with hot water as shown in the video above.

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I disagree with some of the claims in the article. Heating to those kind of temperatures will certainly drive off volatile flavor components of the honey, and will also denature (deactivate) proteins and enzymes which you may believe to be beneficial. If all you want is a sweet taste, it should be fine. If you want quality honey, I wouldn’t do it. :blush:

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Hi Dusty, as you say, the wax will come to the top. Also the dead bees, etc. Only warm it enough so that all of the wax has melted. Let it cool down enough so that the wax has completely set. Then you can pour the honey from under the wax through a strainer.

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@JeffH, would you bee so kind as to repost your wonderful video of the huge dead tree cutout you did, last year was it?Dawn’s mention of “slumgum” reminded me of it (it’s one of my favorite words now, thanks) and I think Dusty would really enjoy it, especially after the couch cutout adventure he just had :sweat_smile:!

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Thank you Eva:) it’ll be my great pleasure. While I’m at it, I’ll post my SHB larvae video for @Anon,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ijziVSZ8Jo
And here is the SHB larvae video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmtfctZVo4g
Cheers

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Sorry to be thick but I just noticed the link is for the tree cutout - didn’t try it before backyard I thought it was the same as the (disgusting) SHB larvae…

@Dusty did you check this video out??

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Yes Eva I did as soon as you posted it. Been off the forum a bit as I’m in the middle of a big landscaping project. Thanks for the Link! :grinning: