How We Rendered Beeswax (for Making Candles)

In this video, we'll show you how we rendered beeswax from one of our hives to make clean wax for candles.

Most candles found in stores contain toxins that bind to the estrogen receptors in your body. These chemicals are called xenoestrogens, and they're frequently used in the fragrances of scented candles. So we stopped buying them. The problem is that healthy alternatives, such as candles made from beeswax, are super expensive.

That's why we decided to melt down some of the combs from frames of our hives to make candle wax.

All you need in order to render beeswax is a dedicated slow cooker (or crockpot) and a cheesecloth. I don't recommend using the same slow cooker you use for food, because wax is a pain to clean off the surface. So get yourself some cheap equipment that you can use exclusively for melting wax.

Below are links to the products we use, including the slow cooker.

Steps to render beeswax:

1) Fill the slow cooker with 2-3 inches of water and turn it on (we used the “high” temperature setting).
2) Place the comb or pieces of dirty wax into a cheesecloth and tie it up with a thread. That way, the wax will seep out of the cheesecloth while the debris remains inside for easy removal.
3) Place the cheesecloth with the wax into the slow cooker.
4) Let it simmer for several hours, or until all the wax has melted (you should see the liquid wax floating on top).
5) Turn off the slow cooker and let everything cool down.
6) Once the floating wax has hardened into a disc, take it out.

At this point, most of the impurities and dirt should be inside the cheesecloth, and the wax should be fairly clean. You can now either use the wax as-is or melt it down to pour it into a cast. Or you can repeat the whole process; we performed the above steps twice, because we didn't allow enough time for all of the wax to melt during the first round.

Products we used:
Crock-Pot 7-quart oval manual slow cooker: https://amzn.to/3tgArm8
Cotton cheesecloth (unbleached): https://amzn.to/3Tro29H

To follow along with us as we learn the ropes of beekeeping and suburban homestead living, check out our Instagram account (  / kummerhomestead  , where we share the useful tips and tricks we discover. You can also visit us at https://www.kummerhomestead.com.

#Beekeeping #Beekeeping101 #Homesteading