Lughnasa Honey Moon
Bees make several products in addition to honey: propolis (the sticky stuff bees use to seal up the hive), royal jelly (fed to larvae to turn them into queens) and bees wax (the six sided honey comb). All of them have various uses, but the only thing I’ve gathered after the honey is bees wax. Up until this year I had never rendered it, but after reading and watching a few videos, I hit on the easy method I’ve shown you in previous posts.
Here is the result:
Beautiful. The smell is one you’d like to have in your house year round sweet, fresh, clean. Next stop, candles. I might make some furniture polish, too.
You will never go to regular candles again. I usually stock pile my collection during the summer months while Farmers Market is active. There’s a farmer from Wisconsin who sells them. They are not cheap; small votile candles go for 3for $5.00. I discovered several pounds of pure bees-wax candles in various sizes which I had collected over several summers. They are slow burners – 8 hours for most of them. We enjoy them at the dinner table when the winter darkness sets in early. After they are blown out, one gets to smell the honey all over again.
I use to make bees-wax candles with my students for Holiday presents. You can use a small milk carton (the size they use in schools) just make sure the wick ends up in the center, roll it around a pencil and rest it on top of the squared-off milk carton and a small weight on the bottom. It’s a piece of cake – very easy! Should you think of selling any, I’m already in line.
Have great fun. If you’re going to do it outdoors, I hope you wait until its cooler.
Wishing you all the best in your new adventure.
Your beeswax accretions look to me like beautiful Chinese jade carvings. If you could keep them from melting , you might have a museum quality piece of art… Tom