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22 Comments

Oven Rendering Honey Beeswax

Oven rendering honey beeswax is a technique that you can use in the wintertime when beekeeping, gardening, and other outside activities oven rendering honey beeswax have slowed down to turn your leftover beeswax cappings into useful beeswax for projects. See 3 Reasons for Homestead Honey Bees for why you might want to consider keeping honey bees on your homestead.

Smart beekeepers save the beeswax that accumulates as the cappings are cut off the comb to extract honey – it can be rendered into purified beeswax that can be used for making lip balms, soaps, candles, and many other useful products.

 This is a great book for ideas on what to do with beeswax:

Rendering the beeswax is a fairly simple process, but it should be done carefully as beeswax is very flammable (it should NEVER be rendered over an open flame). Wax vapors from overheated wax can also explode if exposed to an open flame, so use an electric heat source, not gas and not flame.

It’s safest to do it outside and we have a double burner hot plate that works well; however, when it’s blustery winter outside, we choose to use the oven. 

How To Oven Render Beeswax

Oven Rendering Honey Beeswax 1

Beeswax Cappings on Paper Towel and Mesh

We pour about an inch thick layer of water into the bottom of a 11″x14″x2″ pan, cover the top of the pan with wire mesh, put some paper towel on top of the mesh, pile the wax cappings on top of the paper towel, and placed the pan into a 170°F oven. This way as the wax melts impurities are filtered out by the wire and paper towel, and the melted wax floats on the water in the pan. 

The photo above shows the wax cappings piled on top of the paper towel as it started heating in the oven. It’s best to keep the oven temperature as low as possible while still melting the wax, and it should definitely never be heated as high as 200°F as this will darken the wax.

Rendering Honey Beeswax 2

The photo above shows the wax after it’s been melting for awhile.

Rendering Honey Beeswax 3Here, the wax has all melted through leaving the impurities on the paper towel filter.

Rendering Honey Beeswax 5

This shows the rendered beeswax on top of the water in the pan shortly after being removed from the oven.

Rendering Honey Beeswax 6

And here’s the finished slab of beeswax with the impurities removed – ready for use. Cappings wax is typically lemon-yellow in color just like this, and makes wonderful health and beauty products.


Related posts:

How To Extract & Bottle Honey - Bramblestone Farm
Reasons To Buy Raw, Local Honey
Substituting Honey for Sugar in Baking
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Filed Under: Honey

About Lesa

Lesa Wilke is a homesteader and freelance writer who loves to inspire others on their journey to more sustainable lifestyles. She accomplishes this by sharing the skills she’s learned (plus support, advice & tips) while farming goats, chickens, honeybees, and produce.

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Comments

  1. Tami R Rougeau says

    March 20, 2018 at 9:09 pm

    We tried this method with all of the crushed comb I have collected. It worked great! Our question is if there is anything that can be done with the honey water that is left in the bottom of the pan. Is it safe to feed back to the bees after its been heated?

    Reply
  2. Cassie says

    March 25, 2017 at 10:38 am

    What type of mesh did you use?

    Reply
    • Lesa says

      March 28, 2017 at 10:08 pm

      Hi Cassie,
      It was just a fairly fine stainless steel mesh, you can see it in the photos above.

      Reply
  3. Justin Bower says

    December 16, 2015 at 11:05 am

    Aprox. How long did this process take in the oven? Does it need to be done more than once?

    Reply
    • Lesa says

      December 16, 2015 at 7:53 pm

      Hi Justin, it shouldn’t take long to do each batch. We keep the batches small and they only take about 5 to 10 minutes each.

      Reply
  4. Mike Rininger says

    March 25, 2014 at 3:18 pm

    A word of advice for you. I like the idea of filtering the wax with paper towels but don’t make the resulting blocks too large. They’re a pain to deal with, split, or re-melt if you do. Nice site you have here.

    Reply
    • Lesa says

      March 27, 2014 at 11:47 pm

      Mike, Thank you for both the advice and compliment!

      Reply
    • Janine says

      November 12, 2019 at 12:58 am

      Someone gave me a big block of bees wax. Can I put it in a low oven and melt it?

      Reply
      • Lesa says

        November 12, 2019 at 8:52 pm

        Obviously, from the post above, beeswax can be melted in a low oven. It will melt between 140 – 147 degrees F, you don’t need to get it any warmer and it will discolor (darken) at 185 F.

        Reply

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