Rendering Bees Wax and Burr Comb 

Mike u are funny

Happy New Year and God Bless

Had 52 degrees yesterday, 12-30 -22 here in south central New York and my girls were out for a bit

Happy New Year!

Mike very nice wax happy new year 2023 Sebastian

See you at Hive Life

Ha Mike good video happy new year to u and your family

have fun at hive life mike

Gott Nytt År Mike önskar vi dig här från Sweden!

Hi Mike, this is Mike and I do bees too i have two Langstroth hives and three Layens hives and two Langstroth hive I help take care of for our bee club and I save all the burr comb I can. I don’t get much from my Layens hives because of how the frames fit together but I agree with you everyone should save every bit of comb. I’m going to Hive life next week and hope to meet you if your there. I enjoy watching your how you do videos. Happy New Year and hope to see you next week. By the way I’m in central Missouri in the states capital Jefferson City.

You're welcome Mike , You're welcome Mike, You're welcome Mike! Best wishes to you-all for 2023. Cheers....

Dang! Nice block of beeswax. I'm gonna try using a slow cooker to render mine down. Never done any rendering before.

Happy New Year Mike

It's "invaluable" ! Re Burr Comb, and Comb generally. I too had a couple of Dead Outs, a Nuc made in 2022, and an incoming Swarm. (I guess both didn't have great Queens but other Hives are fine.) So new Colony 'Replacements' can be made. These Dead Outs were alive on Dec 3rd, but we had nearly two weeks of severe Sub ZERO Conditions (-12C) until it maxed up to 14C overnight on Dec 18 ! Weird. They were mm from large amounts of Food !? Despite the Bee loss, that drawn Comb, Capped Honey will be used in new Nucs, or Mating Hives come Spring. 👍 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2023 ! 🥳 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Can't wait for Bee Season to start here in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Will have to be a Virtual Beek via RU-vid... until Spring springs. 😎

Happy New Year Mike!

Thanks for 2022 and looking forward to 2023, prayers for all

yes sir!

Two reasons to save burr comb. Reason number 1 leaving burr comb around can attract pests or lead to robbing. Reason number 2 Wax is more valuable than honey. A little wax sells for more than its amount of honey.

Canada says you’re welcome

Hello Mike new sub here in NC. Great information thanks for sharing

That's always fun!! Thanks Mike!

Hey Mike, I was glad to see you save all that burr comb for two reasons one you can use it to coat plastic foundation. Two if you want to keep the small hive beetles out of your yard you won’t throw it away. Know name mentioned but I’m sure that I’ve seen him throw away burr comb on every video he’s made. Love watching all the videos on the network. I’ve kept bees since I was twenty and I’m now seventy four. I’ve traded lots of wax for equipment with Walter Kelly know longer in Business of course. I now have over fifty to seventy pounds and will be using all of it in my own operation. Will make some candles to sell also. This year I’m going to try my hand in raising some Queens for my own split’s maybe I’ll sell a few of those Queens. Wish me luck first time for every thing. Thanks for sharing and hope you have a great year. God Bless

Good Video.. Hey from Canada 🇨🇦

Those paint strainers hold up to heat, put the comb in the strainer and then boil. Pull out bag gunk and all after it’s melted

Thank You Canada... Thank You Canada...🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

U know what I have been trowing away money for 8 years thanks for this video because I did not have the money to buy a wax rendering/ melter this was good thanks God Bless have a wonderful day

Always a pleasure to watch your videos Mike thank you so much for sharing. Your awesome Mike keep up the amazing work.

You're welcome, Louisiana! You're welcome, Louisiana! You're welcome, Louisiana! You're welcome, Louisiana!

EVERY CRUMB OF WAX SHOULD BE SAVED PURE GOLD.

Happy New Year Mike! Your videos are a blessing to me, and I’m sure many others

Beeswax is such a valuable asset. We didn't get into candles for a while because we just didn't have the wax. We do our final processing through a paper towel to get it to cosmetic grade for our lip balms, salves and lotion bars. Thanks for sharing your process.

We sell our beeswax for $20 per lb plus shipping and people buy all the time, I know how hard is to render the beeswax and by the time you pour into 1 lb molds it add up labor cost

Happy New Year to you Mike and that how I do my so happy bee keeping for 2023.

Nice looking wax. Thanks

Question! During the intro, Inside your garage to your right (our left), was a stand of sorts holding frames…., I think. Sometime, could you please show this frame holder and how it is made, how you use it, etc…? Thank you! ❤🐝🐝 in Northern IL

Wish you a happy year Mike. enjoy your videos looking forward to 2023 (Uk)

Thanks Mr.Mike, had to go back and watch this again because it's time for me to render mine down

Yeah save all kinds of wax! Have a few winter projects... mainly putting a bunch of frames together. Hoping for a blessed New Year for you and viewers!

I think Bruce keeps his burr comb now 😂😂

Nice chunk of gold!

I need to step it up on saving my burr comb. Another new year resolution. Very nice job Mike. Happy New Year. God bless.

Mike, good video and showing of how the burr comb adds up! I save every piece that’s big enough to put in my bucket and render it down to recoat foundations also. The burr comb is always darker than wax from cappings but I reuse it and think it’s better on foundations than wax from cappings. It’s early Saturday and if the Good Lord is willing, I will see you Thursday!

Happy New Years Mr Mike I hope you and your family have a Blessed New Year my friend…

Nice job Mike. Great explanation. I used to just scrape my burr comb onto the ground until I had a viewer really get onto me about it. She was absolutely right. Last year saved most of it. And actually ended up with a lot of wax. That fresh burr comb in the spring is just as nice as the honey cappings wax it seems. See you at HL!

Happy New year mike to you and your family God bless you all

LOL, love the intro! Thanks, i really needed that today, hope your having a happy holiday.

I like to take my block of cleaned wax and remelt, then pour into ice cube trays and other molds to make it easier later when I want to use a smaller amount of wax like making a few candles and such. trying to melt a 10lb block to make a few candles is kind of a pain......I know you use this block for frames.....I don't really separate cappings since I don't get much from my decapper.....besides, I don't mind the yellow wax for candles

When you were in the 20's we were -10 here in southern iowa. Thanks you Ian for the cold weather and wind. -35 wind chill. Happy New Year Mike. Maybe I'll get to Louisiana one of these days to get warmed up.

Hello Mike Barry, and everyone else who wants to get clean wax. I have been keeping bees for several years, and at the start of my beekeeping venture I had very little wax available. I wanted to make wax-coated starter strips on honey frames so that I could encourage the bees to build comb. I had the opportunity to remove a colony of bees from a house wall, and I collected a lot of comb, and that was perhaps the start of my experience with refining and cleaning wax. I have heard it said, by numerous people, that it is important not to overheat beeswax, because of the risk of scorching or discoloring it. Likewise, there have been warnings about how flammable beeswax can be if it is overheated. I agree that both of these warnings are very appropriate, and relevant, BUT I also say that if beeswax is melted with plenty of water, in a saucepan or in a large vessel like Mike Barry did in this video, then it would be difficult to discolor the wax, because of the water in that large saucepan cannot be heated above the boiling point of water. The most important thing, in my experience, is to use plenty of water. I have found that if there are equal parts of water and wax in the saucepan, that the water is able to hold a lot of soluble contaminants. If plenty of water is used, and the whole process is supervised carefully, then the wax can be melted, and strained, etc, without any risk of the water being all boiled away. If too small a quantity of water is used, and if the water is all boiled away, the wax will actually be overheated and discolored, and you may be headed for disaster with a wax fire. Having said all that, I would like to share information which I have discovered, and proved by practical application. With regard to the question, “Will beeswax be discolored by being melted in actively boiling water?”, my answer is “No!”. You may rightly ask why I am so definite in giving this answer. I did an experiment, when I had the opportunity to collect some fresh new virgin comb which was made by bees which had been collected as a swarm. Those bees were in “comb building mood”, and the comb which they made was some of the purest white wax I have ever seen. I chose to sacrifice this beautiful comb, in the interest of “scientific discovery”, and melted it in a quantity of water which I brought to the boil. I actually kept the water boiling vigorously for about ten minutes, because I wanted to find out whether wax would discolor after being kept at water-boiling temperature. After allowing this water and wax mixture to cool down, the solidified wax was still just as beautifully white as the comb had been. My conclusion is that beeswax does not scorch or discolor from being heated in boiling water at 100C or 212F temperature. Now to another significant discovery which I have made. It is easy to find many references to the use of filtering material to remove fine particles of debris from wax. The sorts of filters which people have used includes cheesecloth, paint filters, coffee filters, etc. The one thing that all of these filters have in common is that they retain a significant amount of wax in them, which is not easy to recover. The method which I have adopted does not use any filter cloth or paper at all! When my wax and water mixture is at water-boiling temperature, I use a long-handled wire-mesh strainer to scoop through the saucepan to collect as much debris as possible. I have used wire mesh which has fairly close woven wire, with about 1 ½ millimeter (about 1/16 inch) spacing. By repeatedly scooping through the melted wax and water, I have been able to easily remove all of the coarse debris from the wax, and actually quite a lot of fine material as well. But you might then ask, “What about the fine debris that the strainer does not collect?” Anyone who has refined wax, and especially anyone who has used some kind of filter, will know that there are lots of VERY fine debris particles in wax which has contained brood, or pollen, or any of the nasty stuff that might come from a dead-out. The discovery which I have made is that these very fine particles can settle out of the molten wax, but they will settle very slowly. If you just allow the wax and water mixture to cool down after you remove the saucepan from the heat, the wax will congeal before the fine particles have had time to settle. The secret to success is to ensure that the wax and water mixture cools VERY slowly. There are various possible ways to do this, the simplest being to place the saucepan and its contents into a well insulated box, and this can give an acceptable result. I have used a method where I stood the saucepan with its wax and water mixture into another vessel containing hot water, and keeping this water-bath at a temperature of about 75C to 80C (167F to 176F) for several hours, to allow the very fine debris to settle, and then allow everything to cool down. It is important that the wax shall not be disturbed or agitated during this time. It will also help greatly if the saucepan containing the wax and water mixture is tapered, in other words wider at the top than it is at the bottom, because this will make it so much easier to remove the block of wax after it has solidified. If it seems that I have used a lot of words to describe my process, I am sorry, but I would rather give a detailed explanation. A brief description would not enable all the details to be given clearly. Yes, you will still need to scrape the dross from the bottom of your refined block of wax. But this method does not need a filter, and does not lose wax which is retained by a filter. For those people who really want extra-clean wax, such as for cosmetic purposes, by all means use a filter if you need to, but only use a filter on wax which has already been cleaned by my method. For those people who want wax for making foundation, my method will help you produce wax which is “ready to go”.

I think I know the fella chucking that burr comb in the woods. Now I have a bucket 🙂

Hi Mike, Enjoyed your video as usual. I save every bit of my wax also, and I keep my capping wax separate. Happy New Year, may 2023 bless you better than 2022.🐝😎

That's a nice looking puck right there! Happy New Year, Mike!

54 F, Man it might get up to 54 F this coming week here in central NH. Thanks for posting. You have given me an excuse to have a cup of tea, thanks Mike. I've been making candles. I'm starting to build a few horizontal hives and a few Layen nuc hives. Might even set up 2 or 3 grafting frames. Never grafted before, it should be fun! Great to see you folks down south working your bees when all us northerners can do is try to stay warm...guess the Real northerners across the border are the ones that already know how to stay warm. Happy New Year! Brice

I love to save mine to put extra wax on my plastic foundation , great video Mike

🛫📖🛬 Hello brother Mike, You know something brother, I have never saved the first piece of burr comb. 😢 BUT, you have just changed all of that. From now on I will be diligently keeping every miniscule, infinitesimal Piece that I scrape. Mike I hope you had a blessed Christmas ❓ And I pray that our LORD WILL MAKE HIS FACE SHINE UPON YOU THIS COMING NEW YEAR ALSO. Brother you have been such a blessing to so many people through your RU-vid channel. All your work and labor of love that you put into beekeeping and sharing with us such invaluable information. You can't put a price on all the great info that I have gleaned from watching and listening to you. And thank you for all the times that you've gotten back to me with my personal questions and know that I have really learned a lot from you. More than just have a Happy New year; Have a Happy GODLY New Year, Brother. Speak a blessing for me if you would? The cancer is getting harder to deal with. But I refuse to let it dominate my thoughts when I have a LORD that supplies all I need. WE GOT A BREAK TODAY FROM THE FREEZING TEMPERATURES, THANK GOD. And my little girls all came out to take some much-needed flight time; What a Sight!!🐝🐝🐝 I've got my opening really reduced tight but they were busy and even dragging a few of the Dead out and trying to fly off the landing board with them. Didn't see much in the way of of loss so far. Brother Mike, as a footnote, my big event for Christmas Day did not come wrapped with a bow. Returned home to find water lines busted and thousands of dollars worth of damage to the house. Could really use your prayers to help me get through this mess 🛐 GOD Bless 📖🛐✈️🐆🐝🐝🐝

Hey Mike, that was a nice chunk of honey. I wish that I could sell candles but my sales are so slow on them. It got up to 19 f today here in MN and it felt so nice with the sun out and no wind. Hope to see you in TN next week if the weather allows me to get out of town. They're talking 6-8 inches of snow coming and windy.

Nice Mike! Happy new year to you and your family! See you at HLC!

Happy New Year Mike!! Have a great 2023.

You were right. Invaluable-extremely useful; indispensable. Your edit “thank you Canada “ 😂 I had one deadout too. No queen to be found. I love the wax when it’s orange. I love the smell of it. I have been saving burr comb from day one and I’ve made tons of salves using which is for my own personal use and I like it that way. What you rendered looks like a wheel of cheese you have. Thanks for your videos!! Happy new year to you! I think I’ve seen that video you saw cause I was thinking the same QUIT THROWING YOUR BURR COMB AWAY!!! 😂

A very Happy New Year to you sir!!! Again thank you for taking the time and sharing your thoughts and experiences with us!!! Would you ever consider on doing a lip balm video? Anyway may the Lord bless you and your wife and keep you safe!!

Mike, have you ever found that remelting sometimes produces some gritty type wax. Almost a sand consistency. i sometimes lose a bunch after! Just wanted your thoughts.

Great info Mike! Happy new year!! Will see you in a few days at HL!!!!

Great video Mike! I haven't rendered any wax in a couple of years due to my hive numbers being so small. I hope 2023 will be a good year for my apiary such that I can quit buying honey for our consumption. Happy New Years Mike and may God continue to bless you. Philip from Arkansas.

Happy new year Mike!! You must be super bored. When should I set up my to be ready for this new year!! Thanks for videos

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU AND HAPPY NEW YEAR... PLEASE PRY TO JESUS FOR ME ,,, I god a bad doctors report. THANK YOU

Getting started in bee keeping I’m in Thibodaux, do you sell 3 or 5 frame nucs

Sorry, I was looking for a 'how-to-video'.