Bees Wax Goo

[My Mountain Soaps]

Hi there, About three years ago i harvested honey and wax from a very old, and very wild bee hive. They resided in the wall of an abandoned building in my dads machine shop for about twenty years. They acted as guard dogs for my dad! anyway, when the business closed, i harvested the honey and wax. Being that it was my first time doing that, the wax didn't come out perfect, but the honey was AMAZING, it was dark old honey that had a magnificent woody flavor that unfortunately didnt last as long as the wax!
Now, over time the wax settled, and the top part was the part that we see in stores, lite colored and firm. the rest turned out to be a black goo. Is there anything that i can do with that goo, do any of you have any experience working with it? if so, what are some recipes please? i will try to figure out how to post a pic at the bottom here.....

 

[DeeAnna]

The black goo you're describing sounds like broken down "slum gum", which is the stuff that's left after the honey and beeswax have been removed from honey and brood combs. The dark stuff is bee cocoons, other detritus, and hardened dirty beeswax. I personally would never use slum gum in soap, but maybe others can share a different perspective.

I don't just throw it away, though. After harvesting the honey and melting out the beeswax, I roll the remaining slum gum into small balls and use it to start fires in my woodstove. A tip -- freeze the slum gum for a few days to kill any wax moth eggs and either store it in the freezer or in a sturdy air-tight container. If you don't freeze it and you make the mistake of leaving the slum gum out in the open, wax moths will happily hatch, make a host of babies, chew up the slum gum into a nasty webbed mess, and fly everywhere to infest your house.

Don't ask me how I know that.

 

[AngelMomma]

I was given a bucket of such wax that contained "black goo". I filtered it repeatedly through cheesecloth with coffee filters on top. It is an easy hands off approach that I found much less tedious than the water process that some use. Here is a link that shows how I did it in the oven. I also did it with the same set up in a makeshift solar oven. The wax comes out beautifully clean in the end.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=29754

 

[AngelMomma]

Here is a quick look at my SERIOUSLY LOW TECH solar oven. On sunny summer days it gets seriously HOT! On the bottom is a small yard fire pit with the top removed. I used that because its metal and black. Then the galvanized tub topped with a piece of heavy beveled glass. I put the beveled side down and that seems to intensify the suns effects.

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

Thank you both for your replies. AngelMomma, I read your thread that you posted, but i see that the goo/slum gum that you started with was much much lighter and cleaner than what i have (There is not one ounce of lighter colored material anywhere). The picture doesn't show it, but it mostly looks like black molasses. There are a few solid chunks of you guessed it, black crud. So would it be worth trying to purify it like you have suggested? otherwise, it may go into the compost pile, being that i don't have a fireplace to use it as a fire starter like Deeanna posted. Unless someone can suggest another idea that is. I have already gotten about a pound of good clean wax from this harvest, but i wonder if this slum gum is worth trying to render again?

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

i see that my pic didnt post on the original post, so i went back and edited it. hopefully it will come through this time.

 

[DeeAnna]

You might get a little more wax from the slum gum in your pic, but it will be darker than the first wax you collected. You can bleach it in the sun to make it somewhat lighter or just use it as is. Your best light-colored wax will be suitable for bath and body products, but dark wax IMO is better used for other things. Rendering a little more wax out of the slum gum might be interesting and fun if you've never done it before, but I don't think you'll get a lot more wax if all you have is what is in the plastic bag in your photo. If there's a fair bit more that isn't shown in your photograph, that might be different.

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

yeah what you see in the photo is what i have. so i may not try anything. I just wanted to see if anything could be done with it. Thank you both for your time!

 

[DeeAnna]

There's a point of diminishing returns on something like that. Not to say you shouldn't try to get more wax out of the slum gum if you are so inclined -- there's nothing wrong with getting every last drop of goodness out of the bees' gifts.

Another thing you might want to try with your slum gum would be to put it outdoors for the local bees to clean up. Choose a place where you can watch safely from a distance. Just slice open the plastic bag and lay it out flat so the bees can get to the slum gum. Bees love "wet comb" that has traces of honey still in it. When they're done cleaning up the honey, the remaining wax will be nearly dry (although still pretty black most likely). Maybe you can then think of something you might want to do with it. Composting is an option if you don't need fire starter.

A honey bee tidbit -- It might seem like wax moths would be nasty creatures to have in a bee hive, but the moths and the bees live in a symbiotic relationship. The wax moth larvae eat the old black comb to make room in a wild bee hive so the bees can build new comb with fresh, white wax. This recycling program reduces the chance of passing on disease within the bee colony. It's a neat inter-relationship.

In a managed hive, the beekeeper usually takes the role of the wax moth, moving old comb out of the brood nest -- the area in the hive where the babies are raised -- into the honey storage area. When the old comb is full of honey, the beekeeper removes the comb, harvests the honey for human use, and melts down the old comb for its wax.

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

Oh that sounds like a great idea. There are a lot of honey bees (and wasps:sad that visit my yard, I will let them recycle it. I take it you have hives? my husband is very interested in keeping bees one day when we have the place to do it. But he also has to consider the fact that he is truly deathly allergic to bees. So that may be a hobby he will have to forego. thanks again!

 

[DeeAnna]

Here's a pic of my bees cleaning up some honeycomb. The comb is much lighter in color than yours, but this is the kind of behavior you might see if you put the slum gum out for them to find.

Edit -- Yes, I'm a hobby beekeeper with 4 colonies. My bees are getting cranky because it's still warm but there's nothing blooming anymore as the fall passes on. They'd love a treat like your slum gum.

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

They look like they are having fun! I think i will do that, just put it where we wont get stung that is a great photo too, photography is another hobby of mine.

 

[PinkCupcake]

I read this thread yesterday, and now I can't stop saying the phrase "slum gum."

 

[djk17]

I'm absolutely fascinated by this thread. I love bees and honey and beekeepers too!
Maybe one day I'll have a chance to keep some hives.

 

[TVivian]

I'm fascinated too! I've read it over and over! Beekeeping and harvesting honey and beeswax seems like a dream! I've never even seen a real beehive.


Sent from my iPhone using Soap Making

 

[AngelMomma]

WOW! Your right! Even the darkest of my "SLUM GUM" wasn't as dark as yours. I don't think I would bother with that.

DeeAnn I LOVE the picture of your bees!!! SO COOL! I love sitting by flowers in my yard and catching pictures of the wild bees that come to visit. SOMEDAY my husband and I want to have bees. If we ever move to a bigger place that is on our list!

 

[DeeAnna]

... slum gum ... slum gum ... slum gum ...

Yeah, it's a weird name, all right. I have no idea who coined the term, but that's what they call it.

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

wow i had no idea that a simple question would bring so much fun! ha ha. yes, the slum gum was placed out on top of the compost pile for both the bees and the micro-organisms to have fun. The bees like to visit a plant that is about twenty feet away, but i had to put it on the fenced in compost pile to keep a certain nosey little jack russel out of it

 

[DeeAnna]

Bees have the ability to smell sweet things from a long ways away. They'll find it!

 

[Skatergirl46]

This whole thread has been very interesting!