Rendering Your Own Beeswax- it’s Easy!

Rendering your own beeswax is easier than you might think! There are expensive gadgets out there that can help the process, but with a little patience, you can do it yourself without spending any extra money!

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Rendering Your Own Beeswax

After processing your honey frames, you will be left with all the cappings. I would love to have an uncapping tank, but I currently collect them all in a 5-gallon bucket with a strainer. That way, I can collect most of the honey!

When you’re ready to render all that beeswax down into a more usable form you will only need a few pieces of equipment. First note that once you use something for wax, you probably won’t want to use it for anything else again- so don’t use one of your good pots! You will want a tall stockpot and a metal, plastic, or silicone stirring spoon. You can also use wood or bamboo, I just find the wax sticks to them more stubbornly.

That’s it! Two pieces of equipment! You can get more fancy, of course, but that’s all you need if you’re just looking to get cappings into a state that can be stored.

The Process

Now that you have your pot and spoon, you’re ready to render. Put all your cappings into the pot- they will melt down significantly, so don’t worry if it’s near the top. Now pour at least a quart of water in with the wax. If you have a lot of wax and a large pot, you can put a lot more water in. This helps the detritus separate and the wax to be cleaner on the first run. So, the more water that fits, the better! You also want enough water that it doesn’t all evaporate before the wax is melted.

Now turn on your stove to a low-medium heat. This will take a LONG time. And the more wax you have, the longer it takes. Watch carefully and do not allow the water to come to a boil. The flash point of wax is 400°F and it discolors at temperatures over 185°F. It needs to get to 144°F to melt.

Expect this process to take at least 45 minutes. Stir occasionally (VERY carefully) to help the process and encourage separation of wax and non-wax. Once everything is melted, turn off the stove and remove from heat. If you had a small amount of wax, allow it to sit briefly with the heat still on without stirring. That way, the wax can separate before it starts to cool into place.

Now another step that requires patience! Let the wax cool completely in the pot. Depending on the amount of wax, this may take a few hours or overnight. You can skim off some of the stuff that floats to the top if you want. The wax will pull away from the edges of the pot when it cools, so it will be easy to remove. Rendering your own beeswax is easy, but it can take a fair amount of time!

Wax Cake

Once it is completely cooled, pour out the water and retrieve your wax. Please note that this water is NOT fit to go down the drain!! Wax and propolis should never go down a drain- it can create a lot of problems. Pour it out outside or even put it in your compost.

You now have a wax cake! It will probably look a little (or a lot) dirty on the bottom. This will mostly be propolis. Scrape it off and save it if you want or discard it.

If you want your wax cleaner, simply repeat the process with clean water! Also, once it has been cleaned once, you can use cheesecloth or a strainer to get it even nicer once you melt it again. It is a bit annoying, as the wax cools and hardens very quickly when straining, but if you will be using the wax for a lip balm or other applications like that, it may be worth it.

A little tip if you have multiple rounds of cappings you need to melt. Once you have your first round done with all of the wax, you can put more than one wax cake in to melt for your second round! Alternatively, you can keep adding unprocessed wax as it melts down. Keep in mind that this will create a thicker wax cake that will take longer to cool.

The positive side of the large wax cakes is all the propolis and such still all goes to the top and bottom. That means it will take less work to get a nice, clean wax cake.

Done!

Look at you! You’re now a pro at an inexpensive method of rendering your own beeswax. It may be a little time consuming, but it is easy- and friendly on your wallet. This method is perfect for storing wax until you want to further process it.