stupid BEES update -- lip balm, and Q about the remaining bees?

[me&thegals]

Yeah, I'm with justasnak

PLEASE consider making lip or hand balm with the left-over wax,u have chewed all the honey out (I'm not kidding!) Take 1 part wax (by weight) to 4 parts food oil (I used canola) and melt them in the microwave in a glass liquid measuring cup. Then, add 10-20 drops of your favorite essential oil and pour into any desired containers. I actually ordered lip balm and stick containers for the purpose, but I also made some into larger 1/2-cup containers and use that stuff for slathering on my hands after picking blackberries. BTW, you probably will need to strain the concoction, as I imagine it will have brownish stuff left in the wax from bee coccoons and the like.

If you try it, let me know what you think--it is truly wonderful! And it doesn't take much wax to get a significant amount of balm.

 

[patandchickens]

Yup, that is certainly my plan

On reflection I think we will use the honey -- it's only like a half cup -- on pancakes tomorrow for breakfast. Any left over gets put somewhere that nobody but me knows where it is

Since this is the ONLY home-grown honey (or beeswax) we are ever likely to have, I want to enjoy it to the fullest

Thanks for all the help everyone,

Pat

 

[patandchickens]

OK, I have reasonably-sorta-kinda purified beeswax now. I put it in a jar with a little warm water, and set it on a canning lid in a pan of simmering water to make sort of a double boiler, and then re-solidified it. That's pretty neat! I'm really enjoying this. If I werent such a total wussie about bees, and if my arm hadn't swole up SO much last time I got stung by a hornet, I would probably be pricing beekeeping supplies and hives

Now I just have to decide what exactly 'seasonings' to put in for lip balm

There are still a WHOLE LOT of bees in the now opened up soffit, though. Like a regulation football cut in half longitudinally. Yesterday a lot were buzzing all around very aggravatedly, but so far today they are just hanging there in a buzzing mass. Is this what you'd normally expect them to do? I don't want to bother the bee guy and his bee vacuum cleaner over nothing, but I also dont' want it to turn out that the queen is still there and they move into a *different* part of the soffit and cause a *second* part to have to be cut out... what do you think, Reinbeau and other bee folk?

Thanks,

Pat

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Pat, I think you should use coconut oil in your lip balm!

 

[patandchickens]

ROTFLMAO

You know what, just for you, if I had some I *would* use it, too! I don't suppose the 'cream' off canned coconut milk could be used instead? Cuz I was going to make a thai curry for dinner tonight or tomorrow... Prolly not, I guess it would go bad or something. Would it? Hm, now I'm curious.

Pat

 

[DrakeMaiden]

If you wanted to try coconut cream, you might want to store the product in the fridge. I don't think it would have as good storage qualities as the oil. But it might be worth trying for a small fraction of your wax.

 

[reinbeau]

Those are no doubt the field bees that were out and about when the cutout was being done. Provided the beek did a good job with the cutout, there's no chance of a queen being there, they'll go away on their own.

 

[lupinfarm]

I didn't read all the pages so I don't know if you've dealt with it already, but do you see what my problem was? We tried finding someone to take the honeybees that had made our chicken coop home but no one wanted them! ... So we had to murder them all, although, IMO they had it coming when they chased me across the yard!

 

[lupinfarm]

PUT IN CLOVE OIL OMG AMAZING.


Its like christmas on your lips year round.

See if you can find the burts beeds clove oil balm and give it a try, it's fantastic, and smells great. Your own homemade clove oil balm would be fab.