Top tip for other newbies when you want to clean your sieve and pot try hot vegetable oil. The hot oil dissolves the wax and crud, then you can clean the oil off with dish detergent.

Do the last melt with the wax wrapped in an old t-shirt to get really clean wax. The t-shirt will act like a filter holding on to all the dirt while the melted wax goes right through. You then pull the t-shirt out and hang it above the pot, or bucket, and leave it to drip the last bit of wax before you discard it along with all the last dirt and debris.

I would like to thank Barnyard Bees, I just purchased some more supplies from them, and i hit the wrong shipping cost, they corrected it and refunded the money, they are honest people, getting my bees in spring, reading and watching video's, can't wait. Thanks again.

@Vincenza8907

3 жыл бұрын

How was your first year?

We're up in Montreal and we'll get down to 0f, and maybe -10 or so for a week or two, but this winter has been pretty easy. Hardly any snow so far, and nothing colder than maybe 10f Great channel. I've been thinking about doing this on a small scale, and you've pretty much convinced me.

So glad I came across your channel!!! I'm looking to start beekeeping after I move, and all your videos answer all my questions!! Thank you so much!

Thank you. Greatly appreciate it. I'm a small farmer and like to save all I can. I just had a hive die or fly off. It's one of 2 and empty! I just brought it inside and I'm saving everything I have a jar of propolis a jar of bee pollen and I was wondering about the wax and then I came across your video. I'm so glad I can save all of it even the nasty looking stuff!!! Thank you so much!!!

Gets in low 20s here in Mariposa CA . I live in the mountains, 40 minutes from Yosemite Park. Have a good weekend David. Take care..

I typically use a cardboard box with the inside painted black. Look for solar oven on line. Put a pot with some water in the box with a tee shirt over the pot, then stack the comb over that and let it sit in the sun. I put a piece of Plexiglas or clear plastic over the box to keep the heat in. As the wax melts, add more. All the wax will melt and the tee shirt will strain the wax and all that is left is nice clean wax and a tee shirt full of crap. The tee shirt full of crap makes a great fire starter for camp fires or for your fireplace. You can substitute the cardboard box for an oven heated to a low temperature. What I've found is, once and your done. BTW, we've been down in the single digits here in CT.

I think the coldest was -9° Celsius in Ljubljana, Slovenia.Thank you for the videos, they really helped me a lot in my first year of beekeeping! :)

Hi ! Newbie here in Hong Kong working with Apis cerana as a hobby. Going into my second year and gonna render the comb as per your video. Thank you so much for your work . Helps me a lot. Here in the sun tropics we get down to 4 c/39f in winter. Our dearth is starting now - summer through to fall.

Thank you so much for producing this video. I don't know if it is because I am in my sixties and thus have done MUCH cleaning in my life, but I did essentially the same as you showed before even seeking a how-to video. I will now look into how to make candles. Again, thank you. It is July 2022, and I write to you from Alberta Canada. The coldest it got here this past winter was -40 Celsius, which, I believe is -40 Fahrenheit -- the two temperature measurements eventually catch up to each other. Sadly, my bees did not survive, but it may have been due to mites more than to the temperatures. Cheers

Awesome video that was suggested from a very kind keeper that gifted me 12lbs of wax! Thank you for the knowledge and I will definitely be checking your site to one day start my own hives! Blessings to you and yours

Saint Paul, MN in February 2019: -40F°. My two hives; had one Italin and one Saskatrz were outside but were prepped for winter. The Italians survived for the spring. We Minnesotans are tough, but our bees are tougher... :)

-60(not counting wind chill) up in Minnesota I'm glad I don't live there anymore I'm loving this educational stuff.

@blue33fp

3 жыл бұрын

I have family in Minneapolis, and have spent time in Northern MN. The lowest I experienced then was -40. Glad I don't have to deal with temps that low here in PA. 😊

I have found that, if you put all the frames with wax moth damage in a plastic tub of water, hold them down with a rock. After they soak all the wax cocoons and damaged comb falls off so easy. No scrapping at all. The just set out the frame to dry

Very cool and educational! Lowest it has gotten down to here in Buckley, WA this year is 20 degrees at night.

A beekeeper gave us a bucket like that full of nasty wax and cappings to spread on our frame foundations......we done exactly what you done as well on the stove with an old canner pot..... I'm still scraping wax off the floor 😂....I never thought it would work....it did!! I love your videos.

@davidhaught84

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much Mizz Pretty.

i there. I enjoyed the show and this is what I do, about 3 times. I am in canada Alberta and Jan. 14 we had about minus 43 F and a wind chill of about minus 49 F so we have a problem keeping bee,s alive so we wrap them up. I am down to one hive but I am learning(3 years in bee keeping), so buying 2 more packages and try and do better at bee keeping. Rob from Canada

Illinois near Chicago, I remember -15 in the 1980’s. It’s near 39+ right now. Thanks for the video. Have a great week.

@Tamburello_1994

4 жыл бұрын

We had that a couple years ago as well with the Polar Vortex.

Give the wax back to the bees. With clean bees wax , melt it and dip paint brush in wax and paint the wax on new fountain and honey frames. It helps bees to be better producers.

Just over 20 miles north of Detroit on the edge of both suburbs, and farmland. Normal coldest temps are single digits typically in January, & February when we get those arctic blasts (sometimes have seen minus single digits). Just a couple years ago we did hit -20...first time in my life.

Minnesota. The coldest temp on record ever in Minnesota was -67°F. This year the coldest we got to was -54. I love the North Star State, lol.

Thanks dude man I sure do love your videos I don’t know if people tell you how much they appreciate your videos but I do really do thank you so much

Starting to watch all the beekeeping vids I can find as I'm finally getting a colony started this spring. Not for some time yet though- you mention lows, currently we're having a cold snap here and it got down to -38C the other day, with windchill to -51C!

Hey David. Enjoy your channel. Real envious of your weather . Coldest this year was -35C. = -24F here in Mara British Columbia. Take care of your bees David.

So far for 2020, it was in the low 30's for a couple of hours overnight here in southern Florida. Cold enough to make iguana's fall out of trees, LOL!! Great video David... Have fun with those bees !!! ✌️🐝🐝🐝

Wow! Great video, I'm not a bee keeper but love to watch your videos. Oh by the way, I live in western New York. Mild winter this year, 40 degrees today. LOL

High Rolls, NM at about 7000 ft. we got down to 6 degrees Fahrenheit a few days ago. Thank the good Lord we have turned the corner toward spring!

I have enjoyed many of your videos. I am just starting my first hive this year. The low temperature this year was -45 here in the interior of Alaska.

@noahriding5780

2 жыл бұрын

O.o How do you even survive that much of a low?

Love watching this. Good job! With proper gloves you can use a cheese cloth to strain because you can get more water and wax out initially by squeezing it. And for the last render I’d love to recommend a metal brush ;-)

South of Kcmo 20 miles, 4 degrees has been the coldest so far. Really like the videos never looked into this stuff before until I came across one of your videos. Oh and go Chiefs!

if you poured the melted wax into a more narrow container to cool, you would have less dirty surface to deal with.

It can also be used as one of the ingredients in a fixative for the edges of a leather project where they need to be polished.

Great video, my friend. I think we’ve got you beat with the cold. -40C. 😉

@LittleMountainRanch

4 жыл бұрын

@@davidhaught84 I'm awesome. it's warmed up to above freezing so the bees are much happier.

Newbie here. I got stung by a bee while taking the wax out of a bag. Just fyi if there are any new newbies here. I guess some bees get boiled in the process? Thank you for your tips. Greatly appreciated ❤

Hi David. Lowest 29 fer. Central texas... I can't wait to see how to make foundations.

@JakeBeesos

4 жыл бұрын

@Ifixoldhouses 👋👋

@angeleskuykendall4593

3 жыл бұрын

Hi Angeles here, lowest 28 Hayward California.

Such a pretty cat!! Also great video!

Thanks for this, I haven't tried melting wax yet but I've been saving it up... Heading out to the used to pick up the stuff I left on ground...😹

I’d say the lowest average temperature at night for here, Las Vegas, in 2019 fall through winter was in the low 30’s for a short time. The average low during the day in that same span was low to mid 40’s, and has steadily increased. Looking at 50’s-60’s at night currently, and reaching 70 this next week. My bees didn’t “sleep” all winter, and I’ve had to feed them the whole time !!!!!🐝🐝

Eagle River Alaska -28F low. Been 2 weeks with negative F temps. Bees are all cozy and doing great.

-24, wasilla alaska. Apimaye hives holding strong. Overwintered last year with one super of sugar water that was fed to them, and a 25lbs sugar patty. Long winters here.

California, Low 30's. It's typically in the low 40's and wet. I haven't seen moths on the side of the wooden frames or even in the hives! This is very interesting.

For the past few days up until recently it got down into the 20's at night here in Central North Carolina. Zone 8. Before it got cold, my bees were bringing in pollen, and likely nectar from Red Maples. Fortunately, because I only have one hive, I had a small heating pad for emergency temperatures, and only put the heat pad on once it got a little below freezing. I turned it off once it get above freezing. My bees seem to be doing all right so far.

Hi David, I am in the interior of British Columbia, a little place called 100 Mile House. We had temperatures as low as -40 celcius for 2 days a little over 2 weeks ago. This is my first winter with my bees, I am a little worried because the wind chill was quite a bit lower. My hive is wrapped and I did feed sugar cakes I made in November, so I am worried but hopeful. i really enjoy your channel, and I use a lot of your information. Thank you.

I live in Tullahoma Tn. (South central, near Jack Daniels) the lowest has been 17 deg. I render my wax much like you. Outside with a propane gas cooker. I get my water to a slow boil (pail about half full) and then put my wax in until near full. with a filter material like cheese cloth pour wax and water into a cooling pot. I do this several times until clean as I would like. works pretty good.

In southern Quebec, Canada, we have winters that can reach -40C at times, that hover around -10 to -20C on average

David that's a down right balmy day, I would love to be there. It gets a bit colder here, we measure temp in Celsius now but I was raised with Fahrenheit; it normally gets to be about -20F this time of year. As I am writing this its -26. On the plus side when you are baking in the summer heat we will still be nice and cool, and hey we have central heating lol. All the same it would be great to spend the winters there and the summers here.

Another great video thank you for sharing

Low of 7 f here in central Pennsylvania. We've been lucky last two winters with nothing too harsh. Crossing fingers so no polar vortex systems move through this winter.. About 6 more weeks to go to be safe.

Thank you for this video! Very interesting!

Such a great set of informational videos, I have looked at a LOT over the years but you HAVE IT and I really trust your knowledge on this. Do you offer mated queens to California? UPS Next day?

From Utah David. Right now in late Aug 2020 the days are in the 90s and nights are in the 50s. In the winter we will have most days in the 20s or 30s. We will generally have one week where we get REALLY cold days that are below zero. We are preparing to move to Maine which I imagine will be significantly colder . It will likely make beekeeping a whole new venture! I hope Iwill be able to work it out and bee successful . I want to have huge garden and about 10 hives in about 3 yrs. That's my goal !!!

Hi there! I live in scotland and I think so far this year we’ve hit lows of about -4 Degrees Celsius (24 f)

Thanks! I’m going to try this!

Coldest it will get for me is ~2C (~35F). Current daytime temps are sitting about 33C (~91F), though we have had a few 40C+ days (104F) which have caused problems for hives in poorly insulated or direct sun hives where the whole comb has melted out. Brisbane Australia

Northern Illinois along the Mississippi River. Not much this year so far but last February when I was out of town it got to -33F. When I got home and checked the bees I found that the plastic cardboard closers on my screened bottom boards had either blown out or were pulled out by critters. I wanted to see what a hive with wall to wall bees looked like after they froze to death. Both hives were wall to wall live bees looking very unconcerned with outside temps. I'm pretty sure they appreciated the extra ventilation... I had four hives that died and they were dripping wet. Yes, I'm a rookie beekeeper and not very sure of what I'm doing yet.

I think it got down to the 50's recently here in L.A. I had to put on a jacket.

@Q_QQ_Q

4 жыл бұрын

lol

We hit about -20 with the wind chill this past winter, here in my part of PA.

-22 F here in Northern, NY that was back in November...January has been unseasonably warm and my 12 hives are burning through feed reserves.

I double pot mine. I put all the unmelted wax into a large vinyl muslin bag and add glass weight to the bag. The bag gets submerged in water into the inner pot and water added to the outer pot. The muslin bag will let all the melted wax leave to float while the detritus stays behind, inside the bag. The reason for double boiling is to ensure the direct heat doesn't damage the muslin bag.

In the Anchorage Alaska area, we got down to -20 F and yes the minus in front is correct.

The coldest it has ever gotten here in Pennsylvania was -42F and that was in Smethport, PA back in January 5, 1904. On average in the winter temps are always in the 20s but drop to below 0 on cold nights. On the day you uploaded this, January 24, 2020, it was a Friday and was a Lo. of 28 that day, and the the day before that it was a Lo of 16F. 20F is cold to people around here.. but not all of them. Some think 30 is cold.. some think 10 is cold. There are times its in the low 30s and didnt even realize it. I built house in 20s with a foot of snow lugging 2x6 back n forth through it while its snowing. Pennsylvanians like the cold. We're one of those few states in America that own the best snowmobiles.

I'm in Manassas, VA, about 40 minutes from D.C., and the coldest we've seen, without a RealFeel accounting of humidity or wind chill, was -7 degrees (F).

Just saw a video that used 5 gallon paint strainer bags to line the pot before dropping in the wax. Picks up most of the nastiness in one go. Your wife might like that.

Central Florida has been frigid this year..39°/40°.. its been a difficult winter this year..looking forward to summer..

Lowest temp last year in our bee yard for us in Central West NSW Australia was -10’C/14F we also had quite a bit of snow

Wow how did I miss this video, I've thrown away a fortune, thanks.

A bit late to the party, but January 15 this year, 2020 in Northern BC, Canada, we hit -45°C or -49°F. I checked the temp at about 7am and went outside to feel the hairs on my arms instantly begin freezing. Car was plugged in but still didn't start, so waited til it warmed up to about -37 at 10:30am and she started. Have a friend in Fort St. John BC who keeps bees. It's his hobby, he's got about 4 hives now, he doesn't collect much honey but we've gotten really nice honey from him and use it sparingly because it's something special :D.

This year in SE PA we had 0 def F. Wind chills below zero.

I live in Northeastern Illinois and so far, the low was -8F the night of 15 Jan.

Our low here in central Mississippi was just a couple days ago and I think it reached 17*

Great video

San Francisco California- we got down to 40 degrees last winter- it rarely gets that cold here as the climate is very mild all year- between 47- 71 degrees all year.

32* for about an hour, North Central Florida

28°F Austin, TX and that was only for 1 day. We've had a super mild winter both this year and last year.

Excellent video. Thanks for the advise. I noticed on the last time in the pot you put the dirty side of the wax down. I'm curious if it would help to flip the dirty side up to bring more crap to the surface. Seems like the dirt being on the bottom of the wax slab would allow it to mix with the wax more readily. I figure every little thing helps.

@RoboticsAndMTG

2 жыл бұрын

The main problem is that there is some debris that's lighter than water, and heavier than wax. That will always end up on the bottom layer of the wax. The only way to get rid of it is to scrape it off between meltings. To speed up the process a bit more and get cleaner wax, you could probably scrape off a thicker layer, which would get rid of that debris quicker. You could even save the scrapings to melt with a new batch of wax.

The first time you get it hot take a bucket and a cotton T-shirt over the top and uses as a strainer and it cleans it up exceptionally well

me a chemistry student wondering if the melting point of wax lowers significant enough under a vacuum in order to get an optimal wax quality. One could olso use a solvent of sorts and then push it all through a filsters and then evaporate the solvent at low temp.

1C here . pretty good 😎👍

The coldest temperature near Topeka, Kansas this year was 5°F. That was earlier in January.

Rendering wax is one of the things I dislike about bees. Probably because of the "on the cheap" ways I have to do it. It is just a lot of work. I am hoping to be big enough in the next year or so to purchase a spinner and larger wax melter. Time will tell. Thanks for sharing.

We use paint socks to keep the crap behind. Makes super clean wax

I live in Wasilla Alaska and we got down to -35 below, it's been down lower than that here before but I think this last winter hit -35 to -45 so it gets a bit chilly!

Hi from Tunisia 🇹🇳 😊

we have frames with plastic foundation, comb is dark and cruddy we stripped and are rolling fresh wax from our cappings

Good tip David on how to clean the wax. I thought that it would be melted and filtered through some filter fabric of some kind.. but your way seems to be pretty good too!

@shiningstar8595

Жыл бұрын

I think his is a long process but I guess there are many ways of skinning a tomato

After the first step of getting all the bulky debris out, you can melt again and filter through a fat strainer. This is a large, heavy duty synthetic “coffee filter”. Restaurants use them to filter cooking oil for reuse. I place it in an 8” funnel set over a milk carton (top of carton cut off), pour a cup of boiling water thru to preheat filter and funnel, then pour the hot wax. Stirring the wax with a chop stick and adding additional small amounts of boiling water to the funnel helps keep it flowing. Once the wax has cooled and hardened, cut thru one side with a razor knife, peel away. Filter can be reused. Clean by inverting, place back in the funnel, pour boiling water through. Using the milk carton produces nice sized, easily stacked and stored blocks of wax.

Here in Victoria I've been too busy keeping track of both fire alerts and flood alerts - at the same time in a patchwork across the state - to check the actual temperature. But our weakest hive died out so quickly I found some bees snout down in the cells, and the wax around the brood looked kind of melted - how hot does it have to be outside for a hive to die of the heat? There was plenty of brood and plenty of honey and fresh-built comb, and no sign of disease or infestation, in a hive that was a swarm in spring.

Here in upstate NY it got to -4* F but we've had colder in my lifetime.

-20F for 2 days in early January. I would love to have your weather

We got down to a crazy 34°f here in central Florida the other day.

@velcroman98

4 жыл бұрын

Then your lizards fell out of the trees!

I’m in Northern AZ, -20 F has been our coldest.

Wax moths are good for ice fishing

Coldest temp we had here was -20°F this past winter (2020-2021)

Knoxville, Tn and I think we got down to 11 or 12. We haven't hit single digits. We have had a mild Winter.

You mention making fire starters with the left over gunk. Do you have a video about this??? I've been saving mine and am looking for ideas.

Mr olive pickle just keeping everyone company

Gateshead UK, coldest this winter was -15 degrees Celsius, summer temperature here never gets above 20 degrees Celsius.

I wonder if you could use a gravy strainer/separator; my thought is that you pour your liquid wax and water mix and junk into a gravy separator. Since it would be glass you can watch and see when the wax starts to collect at the top, while that happens the water and junk will sink to the bottom. Because the spout of the cup starts at the bottom you should then be able to pour out the water and junk while everything is still warm (wait till the wax starts to solidify.) If that works it might be a faster(?) process. Anyway let me know if that works or if you have already tried it or something similar or if it isn't fast enough or worth the extra effort.

The coldest it was last winter here in extreme western NC was about 10 degrees with wind chill.