Extracting Beeswax
Beeswax is a secondary (to honey) but valuble by-product from beekeeping for most beekeepers. Its used for candles, polish and creams, cosmetics, and a range of other uses. Additionally, it can be turned into sheets of "foundation", which are thin sheets of wax, held in position by wooden frames, and these are used to ensure the comb inside the hive is uniform and allows easy inspection as each frame is removed.
You can see the hexagonal cells in the picture if you look carefully, and the slot in the hive from where it was removed. The bees make additional wax themselves, by secreting it from glands on their abdomen. As comb is used for brood raising (new bees) the bees line the cells with propolis to sterilise each cell. Over a period of time, the comb darkens and eventually, the beekeper will decide to add a new frame and recycle the old wax.
This can be done using several methods. The simplist, and one which may beekeepers use, is the use of solar wax extractor. This is normally a wooden box, which has a glass lid, a little like the garden propogators used for growing plants. The frames containing the wax are placed in the box, and, as the sun heats the inside, the wax eventually melts and runs to the bottom of an internal tray, and from there, into a container. Once the container is full, it can be removed. Use fabric or kitchen roll at the bottom of the tray acts as a filter, and beekeepers often run the wax through several times to remove any impurities such as propolis.
You can see the club wax extractor above, with the lid removed. When harvesting a large amount of frames, the wax can be cut out to increase the amount that can be fitted to the extractor. The internal tray is visible, and just out of view at the bottom is the collection container.
The picture above shows another extractor, this time using a double glazed glass top. The molten beeswax is clearly visible in the bucket at the bottom.
When processing a much larger quantity of frames (for example after a shook swarm), a steam extractor can be used. This is fairly self explanatory - using steam to melt the wax - its difficult to filter the wax with this equipment, so it will often be filtered in the solar wax extractor at a later date.
The piecture above shows the steam extractor with the lid off. Frames are loaded into a perforated "inner" strainer and the wax runs through this onto a tray, and then through a spout on the front.
Its a bit clearer in the picture above. The bucket at the front collects the wax. You can see some additional weight has been placed on top to reduce steam loss through the lid.
Finally, once its hardened, you can remove it from the buckets. There is still plenty of residue such as propolis so this will need to be filtered a second time.