Bees wax, What is it worth?

[Down South]

I have a guy down the road from me that raises Bees. My wife went to his place and bought honey this morning. I told her to ask the guy if he sells any bees wax. He told her he sells it for $1.00 per pound. I take it that is a good price? I was thinking about buying 10 pounds or so to make my own lube with.

[docone31]

I paid 26$ for 5lbs. I had shopped around a lot.

[targetshootr]

How would you make the lube? Sounds like a fun way to take boolit making to the next level. I've been using Magma lube in a Star.


:lovebooli

[wills]

http://hiveharvest.com/1_lb_bulk_beeswax.html
http://www.beeswaxco.com/multipurposeWax.htm

Sounds like a good price, but you probably will have to refine it yourself.

[Down South]

I just used the search feature (What I should have done to begin with). It appears that $1.00 a pound is a great price.
Just talked to the wife and she told me that he has 25lbs he will sell me. The guys wife is my wife’s cousin so according to my wife he is cutting us a deal. Anyway from what I understand he doesn’t have much of a market for it. Just a candle maker every now and then. Ain’t I lucky that nobody else around here cast their own.

Targetshootr, Many boolit lubes are made with bees wax. You can find all kinds of recipes in the stickies.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=26524

[mto7464]

25lbs will last a few months.

[Down South]

http://hiveharvest.com/1_lb_bulk_beeswax.html
http://www.beeswaxco.com/multipurposeWax.htm

Sounds like a good price, but you probably will have to refine it yourself.

During my search I found the procedure for cleaning it. Doesn't look to be much of a problem. A pair of panty hose or cheese cloth and a double boiler.

My wife said he has 25 lbs he will sell me. I'm going to put her back on the road to go get it.

[38 Super Auto]

Does the beeswax direct from a bee keeper have to refined other than melting it and filtering out all the bees knees and stingers, etc?

[Tom Herman]

Hi Down South!

At $1/pound, buy all you can, then run like heck! I have bought it locally at $8/# for some when I was in a pinch. $5/# is starting to get reasonable, so you're getting one heck of a deal!
As far as refining it goes, I think all you need to do is just melt it and filter. I don't know if it's necessary to heat it with water as in rendering fats.
The color will be a yellowish hue. It could be industrially bleached, or left in the sun to naturally bleach, but that's not needed as far as I'm concerned.


Happy Shootin! -Tom



I have a guy down the road from me that raises Bees. My wife went to his place and bought honey this morning. I told her to ask the guy if he sells any bees wax. He told her he sells it for $1.00 per pound. I take it that is a good price? I was thinking about buying 10 pounds or so to make my own lube with.

[Down South]

Picked up my bees wax. I'll have to clean it.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=6&pictureid=37

[Down South]

I made a fast reply with a pic this morning. I was trying to get out the door to make a shopping trip with the wife. Come to find out this guy has about 200 lbs of this stuff (I looked at it). I’m thinking about buying another 25 lbs or so and just store it.

[randyrat]

I'd buy all there is for that price. Remember anything you use to filter beeswax stays beeswax. Fun Fun Fun till your wife is missing pots, pans and utensils thats when the beesax get expensive. I'm out of beeswax for a few weeks yet. Put it up for sale here, i'll bet you could sell all that you want. I have been selling it for $2.75/lb a real steal. $3-5 / lb is normal for good clean beeswax.

[Lead melter]

Looks like there is some big difference in the Wisconsin bees, Cajun bees and NC bees. I had some given to me a few months back that rendered out a really dark brown, almost black, with little or no odor. Some I got from randyrat is a lovely golden with a delicious smell.

I mixed it 50/50 with vaseline and seems to work well in rifle and handgun loads so long as velocities are about 1600 fps or lower.

Another use found...a coworker has a disabled husband with poor blood circulation. His feet are in terrible shape and she rubs the stuff on his feet to soften the skin. She swears it is the best thing since sliced bread.

I would make a few bucks on it, but she feeds me at work all the time...beef stew, pineapple upside down cake, blackberry cobbler, pintos greens and cornbread, vegetable soup...the list just goes on.

Just makes good sense to take care of her when I eat that well!

[randyrat]

Thanks Mark. It's all in how you treat them, they need flowers every day, care, they are demanding, sometimes they give love stings. But for the most part, they poop out some nice yellow beeswax. I thinks its the beer i feed them once in a while (Lienenkugels)
From what i understand, "Man cannot dublicate real beeswax,but then why would you try, bees do it so well." my own quote
Honestly, most of what i render for wax is real clean hive material from real bee keepers.

[Ricochet]

Long ago I lived next door to a beekeeper. I got beeswax scraps from him, put it in an old boiler with water and heated it on the stove, gently stirring. Pretty near all the dirty stuff either came out in the water or went to the interface between the water and wax. When it cooled and solidified, that dirty surface could be scraped off and the rest of the wax cake was clean.

Now I just buy what I need from Randyrat. :D

[Ricochet]

Another use found...a coworker has a disabled husband with poor blood circulation. His feet are in terrible shape and she rubs the stuff on his feet to soften the skin. She swears it is the best thing since sliced bread.
Try mixing some lanolin with that. Really softens the skin.

(I've read that some people can develop an allergy to lanolin, but I haven't had it happen yet.)

[crabo]

The difference in color of the beeswax made be due to early or late harvest of the honey. Honey havested in the late summer or early fall is a darker color than the mid summer harvest. It also has a little different taste.

My wife has 7 hives and I think it is time to start planning on rendering some wax.

Crabo

[Dale53]

I have cleaned a good bit of beeswax. To start with the original NRA 50/50 Alox/beeswax was predicated on PURE NATURAL BEESWAX (not BLEACHED or otherwise TAMPERED with).

You do NOT want to overheat the beeswax as it destroys is desired properties. The safest way is to use a double boiler and filter through a couple thicknesses of clean "t" shirt material or several thicknesses of cheese cloth.

It stores well in a cool place kept in a large ziplock bag.

The color and taste of honey depends exactly what the bees are working with (Locust blossoms produce a very light colored delicately flavored honey). Different flowers produce different qualities. The beeswax can go from nearly BLACK (before filtering) to dark brown to light yellow. ALL work well - no difference regarding bullet lube. It all gets lighter when you filter the dirt and bees parts from it. Just don't overheat it and filter it well before use. Good stuff, beeswax!

FWIW
Dale53

[bobk]

Crabo,
Please pardon the very off-topic question, but you can probably help me. Bees are getting darn rare around here. I didn't see any honeybees here last year. This spring, I've seen a few. What I would like to do is build them something they can use as a hive. I don't want to steal their honey or their wax. I'd just be happy if they would take a liking to my fruit trees. What could I build, and how should it be oriented with respect to wind, etc. I suppose I should put it above bear reach, and maybe face it east, away from the wind.
Bob K

[Dale53]

bobk;
This is a serious question and requires a serious answer:

http://www.beesource.com/plans/index.htm

Bees are most interesting little creatures and their good health is necessary to our well being (I like to eat:mrgreen:)

Good luck!

Dale53

[Scrounger]

Bobk, here is a link to the Beekeeper's Association, they will have all the info you need.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/beekeeping/
I note there is a link to 'Beginners' there which is probably where you want to go. Maybe you can be a beekeeper with your own bees and hives, honey to eat and sell, and wax and comb to sell also. Go for it.

[MT Gianni]

BobK, you might just as well do it right. I would go with a hive set up and harvest honey and wax. Bees have a territory and you need to make sure that you are not set up infringing on someone elses, but look into it. Gianni

[floodgate]

Google up "Dadant" and get their catalog, with lots of books and information in addition to all sorts of supplies. There is a little 5-frame mini-hive called a "NUC" that might do well for attracting wild bees, or starting a colony; if they prosper, they can be transferred to a regular Langstroth 10-frame hive as a "brood chamber", with one or more "supers" stacked on top of it for honey and wax. Get one of the basic books and go from there. If you can attract wild bees, they are likely to be more resistant to the tracheal and Varroa mites, and the latest mysterious virus that is decimating colonies all over the country, than the domesticated varieties. But if you are in areas where they have penetrated (generally the southern tier of the US), look out for the "Africanized" (no, that is NOT a racial slur!) strain of bees, as they are very aggressive. Our last colony died out last Fall, and we are debating starting over again, at least to insure pollination in our orchard and garden.

floodgate

[bobk]

Thanks to all of you! It is such a wonder to me how many people we have on this board with such diverse knowledge and interests. Anyway, now I should be able to figure out how to do it right.
Bob K