Old brood comb and frames: recycle or chuck?

[Hivemaker.]

After nearly 50 years of beekeeping I'm getting fed up with recycling frames of old brood comb. I no longer melt down old black comb - the wax yield is minimal and they make good firelighters. It's cleaning the frames for reuse that is beginning to get me. Wooden brood frames, especially the grooves in the side bars, are tedious to get clean enough to insert new sheets of wax.

Still clean up and re wax some old frames, but from an economical point it works out cheaper and quicker to make up new frames and just burn the old ones, comb and all.

 

[citrus]

I bung them in home made solar wax melter during summer,

nice idea .. you got any pictures or tips on what to do ?

 

[Ian123]

Citrus have a look at 1 of the big supplier catalogues and just put solar wax extractor into you tube search...loads of stuff to give you ideas.

 

[Stiffy]

I bung them in home made solar wax melter during summer, and do obtain a good amount of wax to exchange for fresh foundation. I never pay full cost for foundation. Still a fair bit of crud on the frames. I then boil them in an old Burco boiler, and they come out pristine

Although most has been destroyed now and those left are being replaced as and when I can. Just a word of warning from experience, plastic foundation doesn't do well in a solar extractor !!
S

 

[citrus]

Citrus have a look at 1 of the big supplier catalogues and just put solar wax extractor into you tube search...loads of stuff to give you ideas.

So maybe i got the wrong end of the stick as I used the slow cooker method for the actual wax/old comb ... (got solar power so this is free)

so for the little bits of wax left on the old frames - is there any point sticking them in a homebrewed solar heater (which i guess the main thing is the melt the old brood comb ?)

 

[Finman]

I melt old combs on solar melted. I shake hot combs of and I get ready frames and wires. Frames I boil in 3% lye liquid in 90-100C . Then I wash them with pressure sprayer.

 

[drex]

nice idea .. you got any pictures or tips on what to do ?

Hi Citrus,

I started off with a polystyrene box. The type that meals are delivered in or used to transport fish. For the first couple of years I just used this with a pane of old double glazing laid across the top. The polystyrene disintegrated from weathering, so the next one I clad in plywood. Similar could be made by gluing slabs of celotex together.

Inside this I use a stainless steel baking tray. I drill holes in the bottom at one end and put a bit of metal gauze or mesh over the holes to filter out gunk. This rests on the bottom of the polystyrene box. However the end with the holes is lifted up from the bottom of the box by a batten glued running across the width of the box. This lifts that end off the bottom of the box just enough to slip a non stick loaf tin under that end of the baking tray to catch the wax. The whole box is tilted up at an angle of about 45 degrees and faced towards the sun. I got my trays from a charity shop.

My box can hold about 5 frames at a time and it only takes a couple of hours on a sunny day to melt the wax out. The beauty of it is that I can just leave it to do its job and not have to keep checking on it

 

[Brian Bush]

I always cut the wax from my old frames. Boil the frames in an old Burco boiler with washing soda, come up like new. Some frames are over 10 years old and still going well.
The wax I melt in a container with soft rainwater in the boiler(Ban Marie SWMBO tells me)
Filter out the old rubbish through a sieve and pour the melted wax and water into a bucket with some water in the bottom. When wax is hard I scrape the bottom of the wax to remove the rubbish and repeat the process. I have nearly 30lbs of wax to trade at Beetradex on Saturday

 

[citrus]

Hi Citrus,

My box can hold about 5 frames at a time and it only takes a couple of hours on a sunny day to melt the wax out. The beauty of it is that I can just leave it to do its job and not have to keep checking on it

Thanks very much ... might have to hide my bodges from the wife tho !

 

[Beefriendly]

Maybe I am weird but I find it quite nice on a cold wet winter day cleaning frames and getting them all ready for the next bee year! Radio on, insulated warm room, get a system going......the best bit of kit I have is the little sharp hooked thing that Thornes sell. It cleans the grooves out so easily. I just remove one bottom bar from each frame to make putting the new wax in at a later date so much easier.
Send your frames to me, I could start a cleaning service! Now there is an idea!
E

Yes...weird
Wish I had the warm insulated room to work in...instead have large cold double garage.........but I do have one of those sharp hooked frame scrapers, a tool that really does the job it was designed for..

 

[deemann1]

Why bother
There cheap enough to buy

 

[bontbee]

Maybe I am weird but I find it quite nice on a cold wet winter day cleaning frames and getting them all ready for the next bee year! Radio on, insulated warm room, get a system going......the best bit of kit I have is the little sharp hooked thing that Thornes sell. It cleans the grooves out so easily. I just remove one bottom bar from each frame to make putting the new wax in at a later date so much easier.
Send your frames to me, I could start a cleaning service! Now there is an idea!
E

Yes...weird
Wish I had the warm insulated room to work in...instead have large cold double garage.........but I do have one of those sharp hooked frame scrapers, a tool that really does the job it was designed for..

I agree with Enrico! I can't bear the thought of all the energy going in to felling the trees, transporting them, milling the wood into frames and distributing them (how many stages have I left out....Hivemaker excepting, as I know he cuts the trees and turns them directly into frames etc), only for them to be used once and then burnt! And despite what people say, wax is retrieved from even really old comb - just think how much effort the bees put in to producing that wax - have some respect!!!

(Ok, so I don't have kids to ferry about or vast acres to attend to, but cleaning up frames ready for re-waxing is quite a pleasant way to spend a chilly winter morning. Sorry, E, that's the only bit I disagree on - I find it's easier to clean wax when it's brittle, rather than when it's soft and smeary...)

 

[Hivemaker.]

I can't bear the thought of all the energy going in to felling the trees, transporting them, milling the wood into frames and distributing them (how many stages have I left out....Hivemaker excepting, as I know he cuts the trees and turns them directly into frames etc), only for them to be used once and then burnt! And despite what people say, wax is retrieved from even really old comb - just think how much effort the bees put in to producing that wax - have some respect!!!

My take on this is slightly different here, as mentioned it makes a lot more economic sense, cheaper, to make up new brood frames than paying people to clean up old brood frames and re wax them.

I have a couple of multi fuel boilers that these frames are burnt in, this saves money by not buying as much coal... and saves time and labour cutting down even more trees and logging them up for fuel, saves electric too, not a lot, but it all adds up. I think as long as the resource is used in a way towards being more self sufficient then that is good, most, almost all, of our wax is used here to make our own foundation... lots of beekeepers like making candles from their beeswax, which is burnt, lots like making polish, body creams, etc, all good uses for the wax.

 

[For want of a better word]

My take on this is slightly different here, as mentioned it makes a lot more economic sense, cheaper, to make up new brood frames than paying people to clean up old brood frames and re wax them.

I have a couple of multi fuel boilers that these frames are burnt in, this saves money by not buying as much coal... and saves time and labour cutting down even more trees and logging them up for fuel, saves electric too, not a lot, but it all adds up. I think as long as the resource is used in a way towards being more self sufficient then that is good, most, almost all, of our wax is used here to make our own foundation... lots of beekeepers like making candles from their beeswax, which is burnt, lots like making polish, body creams, etc, all good uses for the wax.

And do not forget the new fashion trendy "wraps" for your cheese sandwiches ( I have a reuseable sandwich box... had it for at least 50 years,,, has a picture of Pinocchio on it!)

HM

How about a trade in.... I give you my frames with the grotty drawn wax in... you give me new frames??

 

[jeff33]

I have bought a large catering gastronorm after a member highlighted a sale last christmas. It can take 7 frames and is heated under a large single propane burner bought on flea bay (chinese quality). Frames are cleaned in this with caustic soda and when the lot is done, I replace with a bleach mixture and repeat....I have 2 oil drums coming next week so I can up size the amount I can do in 1 go.

 

[madasafish]

I enjoy beekeeping but run it as a hobby which has to cover its expenses.. The work involved - and the equipment - to clean and boil frames is in my view far out of kilter with the economic return. Plus it's a horrible job involving chemicals I would rather not handle.

So I don't do it - just recover the wax by scraping - and burn the old frames. It costs me approx £30 a year to do that with my 8 hives - so it pales into insignificance..

And I don't want more equipment taking up space and being used once a year..An extractor and settling tank plus buckets is enough thanks..

If I was running (say) 1,000 hives, and had surplus labour who have to be paid to do nothing or clean frames and save money, then the view would be totally different...

 

[Finman]

Why bother
There cheap enough to buy

Yeah. 10 frames cost more than the poly box.
And brood frames' cycle time is 2-3 years.

 

[Swarm]

I enjoy beekeeping but run it as a hobby which has to cover its expenses.. The work involved - and the equipment - to clean and boil frames is in my view far out of kilter with the economic return. Plus it's a horrible job involving chemicals I would rather not handle.

So I don't do it - just recover the wax by scraping - and burn the old frames. It costs me approx £30 a year to do that with my 8 hives - so it pales into insignificance..

And I don't want more equipment taking up space and being used once a year..An extractor and settling tank plus buckets is enough thanks..

If I was running (say) 1,000 hives, and had surplus labour who have to be paid to do nothing or clean frames and save money, then the view would be totally different...

Absolutely.

 

[Ian123]

For those who to give frames a clean up 1 little trick is to trim say 5mm off 1 side of your foundation, you can do a few sheets at a time with a stanley and straight edge. No cleaning the slots and you can drop foundation straight in. Can also work quicker for new frame construction...Try a few and see how your bees deal with it

 

[Funny honey]

Bottom line it comes down to what you think your time is worth