Rendered wax

One thing I have been lacking is a way of dealing with wax from the hives. It needs to be melted and filtered before it can turned into something else. The wax frames from the brrod chambers needs to be removed from the hive after a few seasons. This to keep the frames full of fresh comb. Old comb, although the bees like it, can harbour all sort of desease and pathogens.

When I went to the BBKA spring convention I came away with the metal parts of a solar wax extractor which is a big tray plus a what looks like the bread tin. The tray holds the unrendered comb and the bread tin catches the melted wax. All I needed was some way to support the two metal items and fit a piece of glass to the front. A trip to B&Q a few weeks ago supplied a couple of sheets of plywood. I sketched out my plan based on what I know of extractors and the metal parts I had to hand. I cut the ply up then glued and nailed it together. It came together over a couple of hours on Monday evening. Although it could be finished a bit better it is very serviceable. The only thing I did not have was a piece of glass for the front cover. I had decided to leave the glass until I finished the build and buy the glasss when I had the final measurements. I got a chance today to nip out in my lunch hour to get a piece of 6mm float glass cut to size. I dropped into the house on the way back to work and fitted the glass to the box. It fitted a treat. I went back to work dreaming of rendered wax and all the things I can make from it. I already have some polish tins in the shed..