Moment of silence for the bees who thought it was smart to enter the liquid

I am a Bookbinder & Leatherworker. and we use beeswax for conditioning linen & cotton thread before sewing. The wax derived from cappings is regarded as the highest quality. The fact that most of your wax candle came from cappings may partly account for the difference in colour between your candle and the other one at the end. Capping wax is usually brighter and clearer like yours.

My grandie and grannie had a rural farm and grandie kept about 2 dozen hives situated at various spots around the farm. Near each hive he would plant different scented flowers, all around the hedgerows, climbing up the barns and storage sheds, the haystack and milking parlor. Grannie used to make scented candles to sell in their farm shop, and some of the flowers were permanent, like the clematis, rhododendron, honeysuckle, gardinia and jasmine. While others were planted as experiments or because that's what grannie said she wanted, so grandie did as he was told - things like phlox, mock orange, iris, sweat pea and lilac. She also used to sell embroidered scent sachets for drawers and wardrobes from the petals of the dried flowers, with the sewn flower on the bag matching the scent. But grannies pride and joy was her rose garden outside her kitchen window, and the wax from the rose hive was only used for their house. She would stand at the sink, watching the bees in the sunshine, flit from one flower to the next, getting duster and more yellow. These bees🐝 made the best beeswax, sweetest smelling candles, and those candles were only ever used in their bedroom. Grannie once said it helped to keep the romance alive and well (with a smile and a wink) - she was 68 at the time and I blushed I was so embarrassed ! She stood there laughing at how red faced I got, telling grandie when he came back for tea, and he bust a gut laughing as well. They were married for 76 years and got married when grandie was 18, and grannie 16. They were each others first, last, and only love and died within 2 days of each other. They were buried together, next to each other, side by side. Sorry about the ramble, but watching this video, seeing you making the beeswax brought back so many happy memories, especially Sundays - church and then all the 3 sons and 2 daughters families (12 adults & 17 children) went there for a Sunday roast lunch, and then sandwiches, salad, and grannies home made cakes and pies for tea about 6 hours later. Her cooking was amazing, and her home always smelled of fresh bread, cakes baking, tea, roast meat, scented flowers, and old waxed furniture. Thanks for making those wonderful forgotten memories come alive again.

regarding your wife's baking pans - when you said "there's quite a bit at stake right now" I literally busted out laughing - your sense of humor is divine and this is hands down one of the coolest videos I've seen in a long time!

In the future, when you are letting the beeswax/slop mix cool, use (if you have it) a slightly deeper container and fasten a piece of clean window screen across the top, thereby keeping wayward bees from doing a kamikaze dive into the cooling wax.

This definitely explains why beeswax candles are so expensive. Thanks for the lesson!

Small tip for parchment paper so it doesn't try to fly off on its own and fit molds better. Crinkle it all up and smash it into a ball. Get as much fine webfold lines in it, and you'll be able to shape it very easily to fit molds and other shapes. This has come in use for me for cooking and other kitchen stuff but I can't see why it would apply in helping you in make some nice, square beeswax cakes.

This is the best video I have seen for removing wax. I never did it correctly. Now I feel like I will be able to :)

As an ex-beekeeper, I agree that beekeeping is a great hobby. We never made that much honey - about 12 gallons/year, which we usually just gave away to our fellow church members !!

I was given perhaps 30 Lbs of dirty wax from a friends late fathers hives I cleaned it up like you did ,what i found was to use silicon cooking molds to pour it into ,it pops out of them nicely . then you can remelt them for what ever you need. great video !

A fun fact: the original wax that bees produce from their glands is clear and looks like ice flakes. But as they use it with their mouths it gets mixed with whatever else they're chewing on like pollen, honey or plant sap. So basically the fresher the wax is the less colour and smell it has.

Literally never done anything with beekeeping or wax making or watched any videos about either of them, don’t know how I’ve ended up here but it was very enjoyable

Couple of ideas, maple syrup finishing filters are washable and reusable. Even after filtering maple syrup that is 219 degrees. Might be helpful, especially with the strong loops attached that you can thread a stick or more through to hold it up. Maybe put some screen over the wax while it cools to keep the bee 🐝 off. Either way if I were doing what you are I’d invest $19 in 12 maple syrup finishing filters. Totally worth it!! 👍🏼

I have to be honest say, that was probably one of of the most unexpectedly interesting videos I have seen in quite a while. Definite wow moment at the end, I take my hat off to you in what you are producing, and in fact recycling, from naturally occurring goodness.

As someone who used to reclaim wax as a hobby, I think you're putting a few extra and unneeded steps into this - the cocoons and whatnot will usually float in the water level and not embed itself into the wax very much. Basically you need to get the water up to the point where the wax liquefies. After it's become a soup from hell just kill the heat and cover it. There's enough thermal mass in the water to keep it warm for a while and the time will help it settle into layers - wax at the top, cocoons, other filth that floats in water, and hell broth. Once it's cold, you can take the puck of wax out and scrape the filth from the bottom. Boiling is a bit of overkill, and boiling it for 10 minutes past it all being melted will only have the benefit of killing off any pathogens (which isn't usually a concern if you're making wax for candles).

my process is a bit simpler: 1. use more water on first round, just heat remove some of the floating junk with a small strainer and let cool. (no messy pour into through filter) all the heavy stuff will settle and you have a pretty clean cake without mess 2. melt just the wax again and pour through stocking or fine filter 3. mix with water again (this will filter out any additional minor water soluble or heavier than water contaminants), heat and then let cool again. => you will end up with a very clean floating cake with less effort, 1 pour instead of 3, less containers/materials needed (just 2 pots)

The wax you made looks like liquid gold it was very nice. Thanks for sharing your videos with us and God bless

This is very interesting to watch and learn from. My father would take 50/50 mix bees wax and mutton tallow and melt and mix together and water proof all kinds of leather and canvas. I have never found anything as good as will, I do quite a lot of leather work and use bees wax for several things. Very good video

Love the patterns the wax forms when it cools down. Looks like the wax remembers the honey comb structure from its former life.

And now we know why beeswax is so pricey. Lots of work involved. That was fascinating!

Next time I'm at a farmers market I will most definitely buy beeswax candles. This was an amazing adventure you took me on. Thanks for all you do for your beautiful bees. I've never had such an appreciation for beekeepers and their hives...

the masculine urge to live a life like this guy in the woods extracting beeswax

I have quite literally no interest in beekeeping, but this absolutely fascinates me.

The most beautiful part of this video for me was seeing that glorious amber gold pour from the bucket into those cake pans. Beeswax is such an amazing substance. So versatile in it's applications.

A little trick about parchment paper. To get it ti.hold a shape, first wad it up then form it to what you want.

You could really use a small screened in structure to work your honey and wax. I've worked with bees a lot when I was young, but never processed the wax. Good video.

Does anyone else find this gentleman's voice extremely comforting..!? 😄 Thanks for the vid!

I love how you're not afraid of the bees. This is eye opening to the process required for bees wax candles. Thank You for sharing.

Good job. For safety, you don't need that much water, just a few inches in the bottom is enough. All you're trying to do is let the slum separate from the wax. Secondly, you don't need to get to boiling, which is also a safety concern. The wax will melt at about 75c which is 167f since it seems like you're in the USA, I did the math.

Not sure if it's a significant issue, but if you want to help keep the bees out of the product as it cools without putting a lid on it, you could get some fine mesh sieves (probably as a flat sheet due to the various containers) and it will keep the bees and any debris out of the cooling product.

I love how the bees just randomly take their turns on video. I live in Kansas, and now I have to go see what color the beeswax from around here is. I am SO enjoying watching your channel!

That time-lapse of the cooling process was very satisfying! Thanks for including it - and for all the information itself, of course!

I have so many empty hives and a head full of dreams of having bees again. I need to clean up my hives. Love this! Thanks.

Thank you for a very interesting video. Bees wax is one of the most important items I possess. It warerproofs wood, works well to lubricate drawyer slides, keeps aluminum from building up on your sanding disks. keeps your table saw blade cool when cutting aluminum plate metal, and a little bit last a long time.

lovely video! baking tip: crumple up the wax paper into a ball and then uncrumple it before lining your baking sheets with it. fits the form of any baking sheet better and doesn't affect the performance any.

Excellent video for those unfamiliar with the rendering process. For the darker wax you can run the melted wax through large coffee filters using a pot, a colander, and coffee filter. Place the setup in a warm (100°) oven and let the wax drip down into the pot. Use a fresh coffee filter each time you refill the colander. The used filters make great fire starters and the filtered wax is a beautiful light gold color, perfect for candles. That said, unless you’re set up to render wax in large quantities, it’s easier, and cheaper, to just buy clean wax from a commercial source.

Silicone pans in the oven with capping suspended over it in cheesecloth. Low heat, just enough to melt the wax. The cheesecloth will filter the wax and honey from debris The wax will solidify on top, the pasteurized honey will sink to the bottom. The pasteurized honey can be reserved for cooking or return to the bees. The wax cakes can then be washed, then cleaned in water, and reheated in a silicone pan in water until the wax runs clear. Once the wax rubs clear, remove it from the water and melt pieces of beeswax (in the oven) into smaller silicone pans of a desired shape. You can make candles this way, too, just add a wick. Suuuuuper easy, clean, and little cleanup. No buckets, no dead bees, no outdoor Turkey fliers, the waste is only in the cheesecloth, which once washed out might even be able to be reused-depending on how ambitious you are. Works great☀️ Love these videos!!

My father is doing the bee-thing as well and very interesting to see the differences in how you organize your bees and process the wax, honey, bees etc...from the other end of the world! Anyway, the wax looks similar and i know what you mean with the smell and the color of it. I use wax in my wood-workshop and I make my own finishing products out of it. Beeswax may not be the long lasting finishing for wood but the best smelling and most enjoyable to apply. So I'm happy to have my own short-way supply chain for beeswax as you are showing. Sometimes I help in processing the wax as well which gives a deeper understanding of it - which is good for further use. For sure, just buying was isn't more expensive but having the whole process in mind, knowing where it is coming from, etc... is priceless.

I will never ever do this, I have no interest in keeping bees but I am fascinated by this video and it is the most satisfying thing ive seen in a while

I've always thought that the price of beeswax candles was outrageous. I have to admit that I have a better understanding now.

It was kinda surreal seeming like you were just hanging out with the bees while doing this haha.

I have refiled wax for quite some time as hobbie, and in my experience the best material to filter it is 100% cotton coth, you loose a little of wax, but the result is wonderfuly pure. and you gain some waxed cloth too, very useful for a lot of things, from waxing wood tofire starters

what an excellent video. thanks so much for doing this and showing us all the steps. beautiful product!

Terrific video. Very informative. I was fascinated by the processes you used. I'll be keeping an eye out for more of your fine programming!

Me and my wife Love your videos loads of love from an amatuer beekeeper in Scotland 😂👍

I make a lot of metal sculptures and do blacksmithing. I love using beeswax on some of my more traditional pieces or anything that will touch food as a metal finish. It protects the metal from rusting and gives it a very traditional look, compared to painting it with a clearcoat, for example.

I have tried so many different things for straining my wax, but pantyhose is brilliant! I have honey to bottle today, and look forward to straining my wax due to your helpful video! Aren't we so blessed for these amazing creatures that share their bountiful harvest with us!!!

I have been using the sun to melt the wax in a 2x2ft 8" deep stainless pan with a drain and double pane glass over it. Tilting the pan slightly allows only the clean wax to run into a catch pan. I just set it up and walk away. As the sun moves I need to adjust it a few times during the day. I will add more bee debris to the pan every day till everything is done. Thanks for sharing your method.

A very interesting and well-made video Wes. I never thought about the wax but I love honey and have eaten many different types and it does vary by the plant type they get their nectar from. So I would imagine the wax is the same way. Thanks for sharing.

The color of that wax is gorgeous! Only Mother Nature can come up with it. Great job!!

Thank you! I have now watched five videos on how to process wax and yours was the best

I love how curious the bees where throughout the process

I love how cross compatible all the skills involved in the more down to earth processes have. Because I saw your method for cleaning the beeswax and filtering it and my brain immediately went - hey that's also how you harvest/clean tallow! Right down to the tallow/wax cake forming as it cools above the impurity filled water Amazing to watch the process and if I wasn't frightened of getting stung, I would be adding beehives to the list of things I would love to have in a property

That pour at the end was so beautiful. The amber colour!

Thanks for this very instructive video. I'm a Dutchman living in Bolivia (South-America) setting up my ecological homestead on 3.5 acres, and I've just started my first two bee hives. A was wondering how to separate the wax from all the rubbish, and your video explained it to me JUST PERFECTLY! So thanks a lot and I wish you well, Hans

I always knew you were a real honey!!! But a candle maker too..... Be safe and keep up your fantastic content...

I'm terrified of stinging insects, so I won't ever keep bees but this is fascinating and I plan to watch the whole thing.

Thanks for your video! Much love and appreciation from Egypt ❤🥰

This is really neat, thanks for sharing this! I never knew how bee's wax was made, this was very informative. Have a great day!

disclaimer: No bee's were harmed in the making of this video, except the ones that have died.

Which brand of blowtorch do you recommend as best for holding down parchment paper?

I'm a mechanical engineer and this video has no relevance to me whatsoever, it is entertaining none the less

I love this video. You did an amazing job at explaining the process. I am confident I could do this now

I’ve built a solar wax melter for my cappings. It cleans most particles from the wax. If using the wax for candle making it will have to be remelted and filtered. I also use pantyhose for the final filter. You can pour the wax straight into your pans and place them in the freezer for a couple of hours and the wax block will pop right out the pan and not leave any residue on the pan.

That's so interesting! And I have huge respect for this guy. I am afraid by bees. So I could never do that.

When I lived near my grandma, she had three hives. She makes the candles and sells them all by herself. She also sold the honey. I fondly remember standing in her old kitchen and uncapping wax combs, spinning out the honey and then cutting up the comb. She would melt it in a big metal pan on the stove to purify it.

I really enjoyed watching your video. My grandson watched it with me & now he wants to raise bees to make his own wax! He's only 7, so maybe in a few years. :)

the way you explain everything is easy to follow and enjoyable to watch, very cool video, now i'ma gonna go back thru and see what other interesting things you've gotten up to. awesome job sir. you did a real good job explaining everything in detail in a way an old ape like myself can understand and enjoy :) i always wanted bees when i was little, i dunno why, i guess because i was allergic to honey bees tho so i never did it( one year i ate SO much honey because i was trying to make myself no allergic to honey bees, no idea why i thought eating honey would help, but i love bees and i hated being allergic, i wanted to watch them do their stuff without being terrified of dying lol)

Thanks for sharing this, i do something similar at present. I plan to make a Solar Wax Melter as i think is not as messy. I made a porotype this year and it worked reasonable well for me in Ireland (where it doesn't get that hot) I will refine it and plan to make a video for my channel

I never expected this to be as interesting as it was. Nice work!

벌은 정말 소중해🥰.. 나도 양초 저렇게 만들어보고 싶다 너무 멋진 공예야.

I love educational videos and also have a very bad fear of bees and wasps. So this is both fascinating and pure nightmare fuel at the same time.

Liquid gold right there, i never thought I would find this so interesting, but I sure did, very satisfying

I'm so impressed ... thank you for sharing. amazing and thank you for taking care of those bees

I guess you know, that if you save a chunk of the wax for your shop, every rusty bolt and nut when heated up just apply a little of that wax on the piece and let it melt into the threads. You just found the best of the best penetrating oil there is.

To clean up wax, bring a heat source. No known enzyme, acid, base or solvent will help you. Only heat can, besides bees that is - but bees aren't that obedient. And the last part, a small correction. You are correct in what you are saying, but it's not the whole truth. I think your wax contained more honey than the other one, which would make sense considering the honey-water solution being used. So the reason for the difference between the waxes is, I think, simply methods used to produce said waxes. Quality of the honey does affect the wax though, I'm not saying you are wrong about that.

I just love bees so much. Such amazing little animals. Brilliant.

Nothing but respect for beekeepers-They are the one of the reasons this planet and species may survive...

I use paint strainers and it works very well with little hassle!

Bees wax turns darker when you heat it up that hot. I try and just get the wax to melt, and not boil before starting the process. There are also ways to get mor wax out of the crud if you force all the crud to the bottom with a filter then slowly the wax seep through the filter UP in the pot. The pot needs to be heated just to about 147F for a long period of time as the wax slowly makes it way UP.

It’s super random recommendations like these that I always love to see. I may never need or be able to use this information, but it sure was entertaining to learn about

The fact that the wax you got is so deeply yellow tells me that those girls were very very happy and healthy. Good job man.

you ever think of putting something into the cooling wax to act as a handle when your going to pull it out?

Most plastic window screen is made from polyester, which has a melting point of 482 F (295 C). Since your water boils at 212 F (100 C), and your wax melts at 144-147 F (62-64 CC). That plastic screen should withstand anything you can throw at it.

This is awesome dude, you have a great approach to bee keeping. Fun to watch even for people who will never perform this hobby. Rock on!

it looks so good! such a rich color yellow

This was crazy interesting. I love how all the bees stop by to help and see what you’re doing! Do you just get used to bees everywhere all the time? Thanks for sharing.

As a honey lover, i have been quite aware of how widely the color and taste of honey can varry as a result of which palnts predominate in the vicinity of the hive. I confess feeling a little surprise that the wax is also affected; I had never even thought about that.

Seems like this is everyone’s first time doing this, including his.

I’m a leather worker! I use beeswax for my thread when stitching things up. It helps binds it so it doesn’t fray. :)

Did he actually catch his microphone on fire?

Great job precise and detailed and most of all no distractions 👍🏾

Love the Colour your bees wax came out.. it's like gold 👀

I don't know how I ended up on this video, but I was interested throughout. Absolutely phenomenal video.

Thank you so much for your video! I followed all the steps, and I have a beautiful cake of wax! I just bought some candle molds on Amazon! Can’t wait to make a candle. Thanks again for a great demonstration.❤

As a person who really has no interest in any of these things, i can tell you that the way you showed this, i watched the whole thing, i think i have a new hobby!

very nice video..my neighbor keeps bees and used my farm to trap a swarm this past summer so I am learning..he loves his bees and I can see you do too. this is great stuff..thank you for the post and good luck

I'm a software engineer living in one of the most densly populated urban metropoli in the world (Tokyo), but now I know how to make a candle from pure beezwax. Thank you for this very edutaining video!

That wax came out gorgeous, really beautiful color.

Wow. That’s awesome. That candle was large plus the 3 more slabs. That’s productive!