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Author Topic: Beewax extraction yield  (Read 1215 times)

Offline limyw

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Beewax extraction yield
« on: May 09, 2007, 12:04:55 pm »
I boiled my used combs lately and successfully recovered few kgs of beewax. However, it was found that the yield was very low, not even enough to cover the labor cost.
Each time I boiled 14-16 combs (together with wooden frames) for about 40 minutes, and it only gave me about 500g of pure wax, or equal to 35g/comb. This is even lower than the weight of wax foundation that I used (100g/pc). Why is it so? Any better way to increase the yield?
lyw

Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: Beewax extraction yield
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2007, 08:57:52 pm »
I have seen bees strip a layer or 2 of wax off the foundation sheets.  The foundatiions is about 3 times the thickness of naturally build comb.  so the bees so the bees thin it and reuse the wax building cell walls. 
This was very prevelant during the early introduction of plastic based foundation (like Duraguilt) and one reason many beekeepers (like me) stayed away from it.  The bees would strip the wax off the foundation to use in cell construction, baring the plastic and then the bees would not build on the plastic. 
If you want to maximize you wax production use either starter strips or no foundation at all.  Slipping a thin piece of wood into the grove on the top bar works as well.  They will even draw out the comb if nothing is used.  I had 1 or 2 frames in each hive without starter strips, just and empty top bar, and the bees are drawing it out just the same as they would with starter strips or foundation.
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