Make Hay While the Sun Shines

The solar wax melter would be getting rusty at my house if styrofoam were something that rusts.  We have had the rainiest summer I can remember.  It rains almost every day.  You'd think we were in Seattle, but our rain in Atlanta is rather fierce, unlike Seattle, and usually comes with thunder, lightning and heavy sheets of rain.

The fact is that Atlanta has had 41.28 inches of rain in 2013 through July 8.  It has apparently rained every 2.6 days and we are on pace to have the wettest year since 1879.  Not good for the bees or the solar wax melter.

There have only been a few solar wax melter worthy days in the past months. Tuesday was finally one of those days, so I put out two wax melters and set them to work.

This has been a rainy summer in many parts of the country, but especially in the Southeast.  This year, for the first time in the six or so years that my solar wax melter video has been up on YouTube, I've gotten several emails from people who say their wax melter isn't working.  One of them said she had left it outdoors in the hot summer NIGHT of 80 degrees and the wax didn't melt.  Another said that she was experiencing heavy moisture condensation under the glass, but that the wax didn't melt.

Seems like it is important to emphasize that the solar wax melter got its name because the SUN is required for it to work.  The temperature has to be high enough all day, it's true.  But for the solar wax melter to work, the sun must shine for most, if not all of the day.

On cloud covered days when the sun peeks in and out of the clouds, I often also come home to find moisture condensed inside the SWM and the wax unmelted.  I just leave it out for the next sunny day and the wax does melt in the sun.

This time I put out the filters from filtering honey to let the bees clean it up in my bee yard.  When I returned to get the filter, the wax was completely dry and cleaned:

This felt much less wasteful to me than washing the wax and letting the bits of remaining honey run down the drain.  I crunched the wax into balls and put them onto the tops of paper towels on Tuesday.  I also put broken up sheets of wax from melting old brood combs.

At the end of hot and sunny Tuesday (finally), I had some lovely wax.  Here is some of it.

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.