![\"IMAG0878\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/IMAG0878.jpg\")
<\/a> on Wednesday, cleaned up and dried honey on Thursday and spent some of this morning finishing clean up and rendering wax.<\/p>\nThis cappings tank functions as a solar oven, letting the honey drip down from the cappings through slots and holes in a tray that sits inside the tank and under the lid.<\/p>\n
Yesterday I watched a youtube video on wax rendering and a guy used a two-hundred dollar solar oven for separating wax from impurities. \u00a0I thought, hey. \u00a0I can do this with my cappings tank.<\/p>\n
So I copied his screen mesh covered with a layer of paper towel, put that on the tray under the lid and put the cappings and gathered wax from other times on it. \u00a0And voila! \u00a0Pure yellow wax is now gathering, floating on water in the tank, the only energy source the sun. \u00a0No pots, no double boilers, no crock pots, no fancy insulated tanks.<\/p>\n
Four years ago I bought candle molds with the intention of making, well, candles. \u00a0I have a new skill learning resistance when I’m learning too many things at once and the wax rendering, candle making hit my barrier every time we finished extracting. \u00a0Too weary.<\/p>\n
This time though Kate and I had the extracting figured out, made it work, so I could learn how to dry honey and render wax. \u00a0Next is making candles from the wax. \u00a0With the rendering so simple, it will become a regular part of the extracting process. \u00a0As will candle making.<\/p>\n
So we learned two new skills this extracting season.<\/p>\n
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Lughnasa \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Honey Moon I’ve been on vacation. \u00a0A bee vacation. \u00a0Kate and I started prepping on Tuesday, extracted on Wednesday, cleaned up and dried honey … Continue reading Bee Diary 2013: Rendering Wax<\/span>