Yes Jorn, I agree with you.But than, each keeper is the boss in one's own apiary and does as he/she will. I have left many a comb/cappings to be cleaned by bees. A lot of pollen is being fed to bees in "communal" feeders?! For that is sometimes the "more sensible" way of feeding pollen to those bees who need it. It is a "take it - if/when needed" approach... Some feed ss exclusively out in the "free" as you put it. All this is done to no ill affect to one's bees...

I have no neighbouring bees for close to 100 km in one direction and for hundreds of kilometers in every other. Disease? One should - and will certainly know about it long before harvest time and hopefully react accordingly...Overall, a great comment, Jorn. I certainly stand to bee corrected...

Cindi, your way of using this "honey-water" for ss is sure, by far, better way of using it up if disease and/or neighbouring bees are of concern. As for making a few candles with your grandchildren? Just put a small pot in a bigger pot with some water... Sorry, I will not attempt to go in to your kitchen...I am certain though, that you and the little people will have fun at this... Isn't what beekeeping is supposed to be all about? (Those making a living at it, can perhaps disregard this ?)

Jorn Johanesson

With more than 4000 beekeepers in our little country Denmark 300km north south 300 km west east, we have to take care not to harm neighbours bees. That is also the reason why we have Strict beekeeping rules by law to be followed. If they are always followed is another story.

Thanks to you both Frank and Jorn. I am considering using a large coffee tin within a water pot in my kitchen, the coffee tin (TIN, I do not think would react with wax, correct?). I thought that I could use this a permanent dipping container for the wax to make candles. We will all have fun on that day. I've never done it, so we will all learn something new to put another feather in our hats. Awesome day.Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

For making candles my mentor taught me the old fashioned way. Heat wax in a double boiler. Use string or flax for wicks and weight one end with split shot sinkers from the tackle box. I a string 3 times longer than the depth of the double boiler is used 2 candles can be made at a time by looping the string over a board. It is eash to make a hanger for the candles ( simple T will suffice). If you have enough room you can make as many as a dozen candles at a time, dipping, parking, dipping, parking, etc over and over up and down the line of candles. You can make them as thin or as wide as you like by how much you dip. Its fun (especially as a childs activity) and cost much less than making or buying molds.

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

If I need to attach foundation, I chew the wax left from crush & straining and use my "gum" to attach the foundation to the frame. One way of using up a little of it! Also let bees clean it up. I have had less luck melting and using for candles, I will read up here to get tips.

Great stuff everyone: Linda I love your blog and Photos! I plan on using MB's crush and strain method, but I already put wire frame foundation on my frames. Will this be a problem? Can't I just unpeg it and crush and strain as usuall. Cleaning and melting the wax later will probably require a bit more effort.

I also plan on trying to make a few candles with the kids. Can regular ( tie up the roast string ) be used as wicks? Can candles be molded in regular tin cans?

Great pictures I am in my first few weeks of beekeeping and hope I have some comb to crush and strain as you have shown. Thank you for the pictures. I also noticed the "Y"'s marked on the top bars of your frames. Is this housel positioning? Have you been doing housel for any length of time and do you think it helps?

couldn't you just use an extra super with a tray covered with the cappings and/or crushed comb inside to allow the bees to clean out the extra honey? That would eleminate the open feeding problem and get the extras back to your bees.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my blog - I'm learning by making hundreds (at least) of mistakes and figured if I share it with others, maybe you'll at least make your own mistakes rather than repeating mine! I appreciate your visits....

Ski, I did try Housel positioning last year but since it was my first year I wasn't really in a position to determine if it made a difference (nothing to compare it to), but I did learn a lot trying to "see" the Ys in the foundation and then when I made chunk honey later in the harvest, the ways the Ys went determine if you pass the judges keen eyes or not! Since I'm moving to small cell over the next season or two, I probably won't focus on Housel positioning again for a while.

I'm so glad I saved the wax cappings from last year because this year that is what I am melting to attach my small cell starter strips. One of my last fall investments was a junk double boiler to melt the wax in.

I haven't put the frames cleaned by the bees back in the super for this year. I never had the honey dripping frames in the open - I always put them back on the hive in a super with the cover over the whole thing. The bees not only cleaned the wax but repaired it as well.

Linda T always learning in this beekeeping world

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http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"You never can tell with bees" - Winnie the Pooh

Tillie-You have a great site, i been reading your blog for the past two years, I will be getting my package of bee next week. So hopefully everything goes smoothly. You can never plan anything with this Ohio weather lol. Anyway keep up the good work with the blog, your pictures are great to use as a references. ;)

Maybe I should make the point. If you PLAN to do crush and strain, it will go SMOOTHER if you either use plain wax foundation (with no wire) or no foundation. The plastic foundation requires scraping off the foundation and it leaves a lot of honey on the plastic. The wired foundation requires working around the wire when cutting or tearing it out with the wires and risking getting poked by a sharp wire.

>I did extraction at the Folk School and found it quite messy - cleaning the extractor, leftover honey on the walls of the extractor, etc. and it still had to go through a filter - my crush and strain took less time and was much less sticky and messy.

But you can't convince anyone who hasn't tried it of that. :)

I think I might be convinced. I just did one face of a frame, because this is a new hive this year and I don't want to risk taking too much from them. I'm also worried that the super is going to be filled with goldenrod and I hear Bad Things about that. So. They won't miss one or two frames, right?

I used a rubber spatual, like your video, Linda, and cut around the uncapped cells. There was an awful lot of pollen mixed in, which was capped so I couldn't tell what was what. But since I have allergies, I'm happy to get a little boost from the bees. Or that's what I hear.

I do have an extractor that a lovely neighbor loaned me, but I clearly won't need it this year.

What I want to know, though, is whether it's better for production, in the long run, to give them back a drawn frame which has been run through an extractor, vs giving them open frames or foundation. I guess I want to save them the work when I can. Like they'll stop if I give them drawn frames. :roll:

I make cut comb and crush and strain the edges and bad squares. To clean I set the supers out for the bee's to clean up. The following year I add a new starter strip of thin surplus. This year I am just going to leave about 1/2" of comb under the top bar. It will be my starter strip for next year

I do crush and strain with my plastic pf120's and my foundationless. I just do the scraping in the yard, right into big 5 gal bucket with lid to keep girls out in between frames. Then I put the frames right back into hive for the girls to clean up. Takes less time than an inspection. No mess in kitchen, and contrary to what you might think very little upset from the girls.

Then I take the bucket inside and dump the whole thing into another bucket that has holes drilled into the bottom and let that drain into another bucket for a day or two. Then that goes through some filters and then bottled or gets heated, fast cooled, and seeded to make creamed honey.

The scrapings I dump into a bucket with some water and put that into a big canning boiler with the canning wire cage underneath the bucket so that it doesn't come into contact with the bottom of the canning boiler. The frosting buckets that I get from the bakery can take a lot of heat but I did melt one once,what a mess!, thus the wire to keep it off of the bottom. I heat till all melted then I let cool, when it cools it is all separated. From bottom to top it is water then honey then pollen then wax.

I pull out the wax it will have the pollen stuck to the underside I scrape and cut it off. Then I melt it down again and run it through a cheescloth to remove any more impurities as I pour it into a bucket with a little water in the bottom and I get a nice wheel of wax.

Once the frames are clean I stack the supers on a pallet outside, cover with a tarp and leave till next summer. In the past I have not rewaxed the frames before reuse but next year I think that I might just to encourage more even comb building.