Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: WOB419 on June 06, 2009, 09:44:46 pm
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What to you all do with your really dark comb, the 3 - 5 year old stuff? I tried melting some down once and it made some pretty ugly wax. Do you melt it down? For what? Do you just throw it away?
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I'll add to your question. would it be a suitable adhesive if melted to 'glue' starter strips?
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I melt mine, and get some of the prettiest yellow wax. I let mine get really hot and then crush or squeeze it on top of some screen wire to get it to break loosoe of the cocoon. there is more in there than you think, the trick is to get it out, the cocoon acts kind of like a sponge and holds onto it.
G3
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G3, can you give more details of what you do? Do you pour hot liquid wax through screen or is the wax still shaped like the comb? How do you work the screen? Is the yellow color that you get similar to what you get from melting cappings?
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>What to you all do with your really dark comb, the 3 - 5 year old stuff?
You call 3 to 5 years dark? I've had comb that was about 30 years old. :) That's dark.
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Hmmm, What's the best way to melt it down? How do ya'll do it?
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In my experience old brood comb is a waste of effort. Unless you have a solar wax melter or a wax press, the cocoons just soak up all the wax.
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>What to you all do with your really dark comb, the 3 - 5 year old stuff?
You call 3 to 5 years dark? I've had comb that was about 30 years old. :) That's dark.
Michael ,, you know some of us are not 30 yet ???? Oh wait ,, never mind ,,, my wife only tells me I act like a 11 year old and spoiled like a 5 year old ,,, hey ,,,, 5 + 11 = 16 ,, that would make me a
16 year old ??????
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>What to you all do with your really dark comb, the 3 - 5 year old stuff?
You call 3 to 5 years dark? I've had comb that was about 30 years old. :) That's dark.
Michael, 3 to 5 years is as old as my comb is. I know that it can get a lot older than that but I want to change mine out because I used Apistan on it a few times and I would just like to do as your site suggests: go with all mediums, foundationless and chemical free. After that, as long as the queen doesn't hesitate to lay in it then I guess my combs will get pretty old.
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I'm not saying everyone should keep their comb for 30 years. I just don't think of three year old comb as that old... and certainly if you have used chemicals, three years is old... one year is probably too long to leave it in...
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In my experience old brood comb is a waste of effort. Unless you have a solar wax melter or a wax press, the cocoons just soak up all the wax.
A solar wax melter will separate the cocoons from the wax of the period of several days. Each day the wax melts and some runs of into the recepticle. After a few days all the wax is melted out and a gooey glob of cocoons remains which are easily scraped out of the wax melter.
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I just let mine melt out in the solar melter and then when they are at the hottest, just take you fingers and mash them on top of a screen wire that is on top of your collection can, wax will just run out a little. Then let them reheat the next day and do the same. There is alot of wax in old comb, but you have to really work at it to get it all out, most people melt it once and just toss it because of the work involved.
G3