Fun and Facts about Wax

Last week I was the speaker at my local bee club meeting.  I have given lots of talks and wanted to try something different so I talked about Fun and Facts about Wax!  I covered a lot of facts about wax and then talked about melting it, employing it in making candles, lip balm, lotion, swarm lure, etc., and ended with enjoying it.

I am giving the same talk at the Potato Creek Beekeepers Club in Griffin, GA on Thursday, November 20 at 7 PM - here's where they meet in case any of you are in the area and want to come:
Spalding County Extension Office, located at 835 Memorial Dr., Griffin, GA 30224

A few fun facts that I had such fun collecting!

• Wax has been found in shipwrecks that is extremely old and still is a lovely product
• Beeswax has always been valued because it burns slowly and without smoke
• Back in 181 BC (a long, long, long time ago) the Romans conquered the Corsicans and then taxed the Corsicans 100,000 pounds of beeswax a year
• Like honey from China is contaminated with things other than honey, wax in ancient times was often extended with things like sand so guilds developed to protect the purity of the product.  Some of those guilds are still in existence today
• One pound of beeswax supports 22 pounds of honey - that means that in a medium ten frame box, which full of honey holds about 40 pounds (4 pounds/frame), the amount of beeswax in that same box would be a little less than 2 pounds.

I could go on and on.....so many fun facts to learn about wax.  

Of course one of the most important facts about wax is that if you are not going to use it right away, don't let the wax moths have a feast.  Store it in your freezer!

I get asked a lot to give talks but this was a particularly fun one - I think because often I am talking about topics that get controversial reactions - like foundationless frames, crush and strain honey harvesting, simple beekeeping.  

This topic was universally accepted and I think everyone there enjoyed the talk - or at least a lot of people came up afterward to tell me they did.

Potato Creek is a new bee club which I am proud to support.  GBA has a number of new bee clubs and this one was just welcomed into GBA at the fall meeting.  So if you are around, come to the meeting on November 20 and hear my talk about Fun and Facts about Wax!

(Bear Kelley, president of the Georgia Beekeepers Association and 2014 Beekeeper of the Year, is the speaker in October:  On the 16th)

Alexander and the Red Ribbon Year

I love Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst.  Poor Alexander - nothing goes right for him.  He even has to wear his railroad train pajamas and he hates his railroad train pajamas.  When he goes with his brothers to buy shoes, everyone gets cool ones, but they only have boring uncool ones in Alexander's size.

It's a great book to read when things aren't going well.

My honey contest year was a little like Alexander's day.  When I entered my wax block, in each show the winning entry was poured into a design mold instead of a block.  It's much harder to pour a solid block but since most honey contest rules don't designate specifically a solid block with no design, then fancier looking entries always win.

So this was a red ribbon year.  I never won a blue ribbon in any of the many categories I entered.  And I should remember that there were plenty of people who entered honey contests this year who didn't get any ribbon at all, but it was still disheartening.

Usually one wants to improve, not go downhill!

Ordinarily I'd say, "Well, there's always next year," but I'm thinking I might skip entering contests next year and focus on honey production instead.

I'm pretty sure I've entered my last wax block, although I feel so drawn to that effort.  I didn't get to enter the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers' honey contest this year because I was in Ireland, and our honey contest rules do not allow a design mold poured block.   Here are our rules for wax block:
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Class 7:  Wax block

1.      The block must be at least one inch thick but not more than two inches thick.

2.      The block must weigh a minimum of two pounds, (but no more than three pounds)

3.      The block should be smooth-surfaced and free of decorations or embellishments.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We worked really hard at Metro to develop a complete and comprehensive set of rules.  If your club needs guidelines for how to write honey contest rules, we ran ours past Robert Brewer (who trains most of our country's Welsh honey judges) and Keith Fielder before completing them.  Here's a link to the MABA honey contest rules.

So, we'll see next year.  Maybe I'll enter the wax block, but probably skip the honey entries for next year.

Yet Another (two) Wax Block(s)

Well, I'm at it again:  The Great Wax Block Saga.

Last night I poured two wax blocks for the Tara Contest and hoped at least one of them would be good this morning.  When I got ready to pour, I pulled out my piece of silk and found that a wax moth or some other creature had feasted on it:

So I resorted to using panty hose - not as good a filter, but hey, it's what I had.

The panty hose is stretched over a measuring cup with a pouring lip that has been heated in a pan of simmering water so the wax won't solidify as it hits the glass.

I cooled one block in the downstairs oven and the other on the counter top.  I heated the oven to its lowest temperature:  170 and then turned it off before putting in the wax.  Inside the oven while it is heating is a roasting pan filled with hot water and the mold for the block:

I poured one round mold and one in a bread pan.   This morning both were good, but the bread pan had striated lines on the edges of the block:

I polished it while I put the round mold in the freezer - it wouldn't come out of the mold and sometimes the freezer for about 30 minutes will do the trick.  As a last resort, I could use this block but I don't want the striations.

Voila!  The round mold came out just lovely:

I can see a couple of specks in it - result of the use of panty hose instead of silk, but it is a gorgeous wax block.  I've packed it up (after polishing and polishing with panty hose) to go to the show tonight as well.

It rides in its own Tupperware container and sits on a linen napkin - throne for a queen, I guess.

Wish me luck and I'll let you know how it goes.

And.....the Wax Block Pouring Continues

Well, the first pour was cracked in both blocks.  The second pour of two blocks last night resulted in two cracked blocks.  I was so disappointed.  Since the GBA honey contest is Saturday, tonight is really my last opportunity to succeed at this unless I pour a block during the day tomorrow while my grandkids are napping.

Generally a cracked block means that there was uneven cooling, but sometimes there's no explaining it. I had done almost everything I know to do, so I decided today to buy new pans and try with them.  I went to Target and bought two bread (loaf) pans to give that a try.   One is glass....

The other is no-stick metal:

I heated the measuring cup in a pan of hot water and melted the wax in my converted Presto Pot.  I have some silk that I use to filter the wax.  So what happens is:  The wax melts in the Presto Pot.  I rubber band the silk over the large measuring cup (and 8 cup measure).  Then I pour the wax through the filter into the hot measuring cup.

Having the measuring cup hot keeps the wax from solidifying on the bottom of the measuring cup.

When the wax has filtered through the silk,

I carefully remove the rubber band and the silk (so that the filtered debris doesn't fall into the hot wax).  Then I pour the melted wax into the mold.  I put panes of glass on the mold after I've filled it so that the block won't have a wavy surface.

One is cooling in the oven in a pan of very hot water and the other is cooling in the oven downstairs in a pan of very hot water.  Cross your fingers that at least one of these is usable in the morning.