Well, this week has been one huge farm adventure that, aside from the surprising addition 14 new guinea keets to my flock, also included two donkey escapes (those little shits), and one wind-storm that blew half the stuff I own into the field across the street. and the week isnt over yet. So. Weve all been having fun around here.
Good news:
So far most of the keets are doing great. I lost one today, which is sad, but its also to be expected. Theres a reason ground birds hatch 15-20 babies at a time
More good news:
Before all of the Crazy happened I managed to successfully render some beeswax, which is something Ive been fretting over for weeks.
First, I built a cheap solar melter that cost about $5
This is just a regular, cheap cooler that I lined with foil.
Then I found some scrap glass I had around (from replacing some of my window panes.) Thanks to my old stained-glass hobby I had all the tools to cut this glass down to size
Then I duct taped everything together.
Now, in theory youd put a container in here with a screen on top of it and the wax on top of that and then leave it out in the sun for everything to melt which sounded like an awesome idea to me, except a solar melter requires sunlight to work, and I finished it on maybe the last warm and sunny day of the year. There hasnt been a day since with the appropriate weather to make this thing work.
Okay, so, Plan B.
Id recently purchased a turkey fryer for the express purpose of, well, not frying turkeys actually. In fact, I bought it to use to melt the wax and propolis off my cut-comb honey frames (worked beautifully.) It came with an aluminum pot though, and I read you should only process wax in stainless steel so.
Two cheap stainless-steel pots later, I was ready to try the more complicated lets see you pour a pot of boiling wax through a filter without ending up in the hosipital method of rendering beeswax. Heres how it went down:
First, I filled the pot 1/3 of the way with water, then dumped all my wax cappings (and other miscellaneous wax) in the pot
(Its not very much because I only extracted 2 boxes or 20 frames of honey this year.)
Then I brought it to almost a boil. The wax was fully melted and some debris was floating on top
Then I poured the boiling water-wax mixture through a filter and into the second pot
Technically you should use cheesecloth for this, which I thought I had, but when I couldnt find it I just used some window screen folded over a few times.
Then I let the pot of newly filtered wax-water sit inside for a few hours
Once it started to cool, the wax floated and solidified at the top
How cool is that?
Before I use it for anything like lip balm (or beard balm because, mmm, beards) Ill need to melt and filter it one more time through as the internet says some old pantyhose.
Okay, 1.) Do people still use the term pantyhose? Because really?
Also, 2.) Does anyone still wear those damn things? I will wear tights on occasion, but my memory of pantyhose is not favorable. Like if my options were to rub poison ivy on my legs or wear pantyhose for a day I might take the poison ivy. Ugh.
Anyway I dont currently own the proper gear to filter this stuff so its going to hang out in my freezer until Im ready to do something with it. But I did successfully filter and render it, which definitely counts for something.
The other singularly awesome thing that happened was that after some comments on my last beekeeping post, I decided to set one of my supers out (on its side) for the bees to clean the honey off of the frames. This is 10 minutes after setting the box out
It was so incredible I actually put my bee suit on so I could sit down next to it and watch
Occasionally the bees would land on me (non-aggressivley) because I think they needed a place to rub the exceess honey off their feet before flying home.
It was such an awesome experience. I enjoy having hives on the farm more and more each day.
http://diydiva.net/2015/10/adventures-in-beekeeping-wax-rendering/
Good news:
So far most of the keets are doing great. I lost one today, which is sad, but its also to be expected. Theres a reason ground birds hatch 15-20 babies at a time
More good news:
Before all of the Crazy happened I managed to successfully render some beeswax, which is something Ive been fretting over for weeks.
First, I built a cheap solar melter that cost about $5
This is just a regular, cheap cooler that I lined with foil.
Then I found some scrap glass I had around (from replacing some of my window panes.) Thanks to my old stained-glass hobby I had all the tools to cut this glass down to size
Then I duct taped everything together.
Now, in theory youd put a container in here with a screen on top of it and the wax on top of that and then leave it out in the sun for everything to melt which sounded like an awesome idea to me, except a solar melter requires sunlight to work, and I finished it on maybe the last warm and sunny day of the year. There hasnt been a day since with the appropriate weather to make this thing work.
Okay, so, Plan B.
Id recently purchased a turkey fryer for the express purpose of, well, not frying turkeys actually. In fact, I bought it to use to melt the wax and propolis off my cut-comb honey frames (worked beautifully.) It came with an aluminum pot though, and I read you should only process wax in stainless steel so.
Two cheap stainless-steel pots later, I was ready to try the more complicated lets see you pour a pot of boiling wax through a filter without ending up in the hosipital method of rendering beeswax. Heres how it went down:
First, I filled the pot 1/3 of the way with water, then dumped all my wax cappings (and other miscellaneous wax) in the pot
(Its not very much because I only extracted 2 boxes or 20 frames of honey this year.)
Then I brought it to almost a boil. The wax was fully melted and some debris was floating on top
Then I poured the boiling water-wax mixture through a filter and into the second pot
Technically you should use cheesecloth for this, which I thought I had, but when I couldnt find it I just used some window screen folded over a few times.
Then I let the pot of newly filtered wax-water sit inside for a few hours
Once it started to cool, the wax floated and solidified at the top
How cool is that?
Before I use it for anything like lip balm (or beard balm because, mmm, beards) Ill need to melt and filter it one more time through as the internet says some old pantyhose.
Okay, 1.) Do people still use the term pantyhose? Because really?
Also, 2.) Does anyone still wear those damn things? I will wear tights on occasion, but my memory of pantyhose is not favorable. Like if my options were to rub poison ivy on my legs or wear pantyhose for a day I might take the poison ivy. Ugh.
Anyway I dont currently own the proper gear to filter this stuff so its going to hang out in my freezer until Im ready to do something with it. But I did successfully filter and render it, which definitely counts for something.
The other singularly awesome thing that happened was that after some comments on my last beekeeping post, I decided to set one of my supers out (on its side) for the bees to clean the honey off of the frames. This is 10 minutes after setting the box out
It was so incredible I actually put my bee suit on so I could sit down next to it and watch
Occasionally the bees would land on me (non-aggressivley) because I think they needed a place to rub the exceess honey off their feet before flying home.
It was such an awesome experience. I enjoy having hives on the farm more and more each day.
http://diydiva.net/2015/10/adventures-in-beekeeping-wax-rendering/