Dipping Candles in November

    The Beez Neez Apiary Supply is a highly seasonal business. I'm like the proverbial "one armed paper hanger" in March through June. Then there is a big drop off in our business in the fall. November through January I'm more like the lonely Maytag repairman from the commercials. Actually, I don't mind the seasonal rythym of the store. I gives me time in the winter for recreational  activities like candle classes.  We held our first candle class of this past Thursday (November 12).  I have scheduled candle classes on most Thursday evenings in November and December. I say most because there will not be classes on either Thanksgiving day or Christmas Eve. I charge $20 per person to take the class. Then the class participants can buy any candles we make that night for the cost of the filtered beeswax. I currently sell filtered beeswax for $14.00 per pound. I normally sell beeswax candles for $1.30 per ounce ($20.80 per pound).

A nine piece beeswax nativity set

Beeswax Christmas ornaments

    I really enjoy making beeswax candles.  They are almost magical.  A beeswax candle will burn much longer than a paraffin candle, it will burn cleaner (no soot mark on the ceiling), and smell wonderful.  There is no nasty smell that needs to be camouflaged by the addition of any scents. Beeswax candles smell like they are made from honey.  In fact beeswax is made from honey. The bees consume honey and turn it into beeswax with the wax glands located on the under side of their abdomen. I have read that it takes anywhere from 5 to 10 pounds of honey to produce one pound of beeswax. Beeswax has the highest melting point of any natural wax which is one of the reasons it burns so cleanly. When the bees are making beeswax they hand together in big long chains like trapeze artists. This is called festooning.  As the bees produce flakes of beeswax, other worker bees climb up and down the living chain of bees to collect it and carry it to their current building project.

Hand dipped beeswax tapers

Large pine cone with tea lights and votives

    I even enjoy the messy job of rendering the beeswax.  Last year I rendered beeswax from five 55 gallon drums of cappings which resulted in about 1,060 pounds of beeswax. The little Walter Kelly water jacket cappings melter that I have was probably not intended to do that kind of volume. Last year  (2014) was a good honey year. More honey harvested means more beeswax from the cappings.  This year was not a very good honey year in western Washington due to the dry weather. Instead of five 55 galloon drums of cappings I only have one drum of cappings waiting to be processed. I will be lucky to end up with 220 pounds of beeswax from this years production.

 

Observation Hive Update, November 10, 2015

    The bees in the observation hive seem to be doing okay.  I was a little concerned when it seemed they were shutting down brood rearing a bit early, around the end of October.  It is normal for the queen to take a break from laying in the winter,  but that usually happens later in the year around Thanksgiving time. As it turned out, I think they merely ran out of pollen due to a week of rather cool rainy weather.  Since I had made up this little hive from one of my late summer queen banks, they had not stored any appreciable amount of pollen when they went into the observation hive.  They didn't have much honey either.  They have done a good job storing honey in that relatively short time, but they never seemed to get beyond gathering much pollen beyond what they needed at the time. Pollen is the essential source of protein they need to be able to rear brood. No pollen, no babies.

Lots of capped honey, little or no pollen

    Once I noticed that all of the pollen had disappeared, I added a piece of pollen supplement to the feeder on the windowsill. That was about a week ago. The weather has since been a little more hospitable to foraging, but not a whole lot.  However, I did notice Queen Abigail the First laying eggs on Tuesday (November 9).

Good Queen Abby inspecting, looking for a cell in which to lay an egg

   I made up an entrance block so I can keep the bees inside on days that are too cold for them to be flying. I think that will be particularly important once we start getting frosts. So far I have only used the entrance block on just a few days.  My theory is that because the observation hive is in a constant 70 degree environment, the bees don't realize when it is too cold to go outside. Last year the observation hive lost most of it's population in just a few weeks after the weather turned cold. My theory is that the foragers flew outside on cold days and were unable to make it back to the hive.  I'm going to try and give them a little help this year with the entrance block.

      I'm starting candle classes at the Beez Neez this week. I should have lots of candle making photos for my next post.