Today we did a beekeeping experiment!

At the end of the beekeeping year, we can melt down the old wax, filter it  and get fresh bees wax which can be used for furniture polish or candles.

We were testing different materials, to find out which was the best at filtering the wax.

we started by taking all the old wax from the frames. Not a fun job!

Then we melted the wax in an old pot that we were never going to use for cooking again.

then we filtered the wax through 4 different materials

• coffee filters
• kitchen roll
• muslin cloths
• normal cloths.

Most people predicted that the coffee filters would be the best at filtering.

Our conclusion was that the kitchen paper and the coffee filters were best at filtering because the holes were smaller. There was a problem with the coffee filters, however, because the holes were so small that the wax began to cool down and solidify, blocking the holes.

 

Here is the final product! It’s only a tiny bit, but we only have two hives.