From Hive to Home: How We Use Beeswax After the Honey Harvest

Honey gets most of the attention at harvest time, and fair enough. But when we pull honey from our hives, we're also collecting something else we don't let go to waste: the wax.

Here's a look at what happens to our beeswax after the honey harvest, from the hive all the way to your home.

(If you're new to beeswax, you might want to start with What Is Beeswax and Why Do We Love Using It?)

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Step 1: The Cappings

When bees finish filling a cell with honey, they seal it with a thin wax cap. To get the honey out, we slice those caps off each frame.

The cappings come off sticky and dripping, and a lot of honey clings to them. That's where the bees come back in.

An uncapping knife or uncapping fork makes this step much tidier.

Step 2: Letting the Bees Clean Up

Before we do anything else with the wax, we give the cappings back to the bees for a while. They're remarkably good at cleaning off every last bit of leftover honey and carrying it back into the hive.

It means less honey goes to waste, the bees get to keep some of what they worked so hard for, and we end up with much cleaner wax to work with. Everybody wins.

Step 3: Gentle Melting

Once the cappings are cleaned up, we melt them slowly on the stove using a double boiler. Beeswax is best melted gently. Too much heat can darken it and affect its natural scent, and it should never be melted over direct high heat or left unattended.

As the wax melts, bits of hive material separate out. Beekeepers have a wonderful name for this leftover gunk: slumgum.

Step 4: Straining (and Straining Again)

We pour the melted wax through cheesecloth or muslin to catch the slumgum and any other bits of the hive. Then we melt and strain it again, as many times as it takes, until the wax comes out clean.

It's slow work, but it's worth it. Each round leaves the wax a little clearer and more golden.

Step 5: Solid Gold

Once it's clean, we pour the wax to cool. Some goes into simple blocks that are easy to measure out for balms and other projects. And some goes into molds, because honestly, who can resist beeswax shaped like tiny honey pots and beehives?

Some of that wax also becomes our Natural Beeswax Bars, so you can bring a little of the hive home for your own wood care, sewing and DIY projects. 🐝 (Here are 5 household fixes to try with one.)

Every piece is a little different in color depending on the season and the flowers the bees visited, just like our honey.

Where Our Beeswax Ends Up

Balms, salves and lotions. This is where most of our wax goes. It's the backbone of our lip balms, cuticle balms, salves and lotions, helping them hold their shape and hold in moisture on your skin.

Candles. Beeswax candles have a warm, golden glow and a faint honey scent when they burn. They're a cozy way to enjoy the wax around the house. (Curious how they compare? Read Soy vs. Beeswax vs. Paraffin Candles.)

Wood and cutting board polish. A little beeswax brings dry wooden spoons, cutting boards and furniture back to life, leaving a soft, protective finish. (Here's how we care for ours: How to Care for a Wooden Cutting Board Naturally.)

Reusable food wraps. Fabric coated in beeswax makes a reusable wrap for covering bowls, wrapping sandwiches or keeping half a lemon fresh, with less plastic wrap going into the trash.

Back to the bees. And some of the wax goes right back to where it came from. It feels right that a little of what the bees made returns to the hive.

Nothing Wasted

One of the things we love most about beekeeping is how little goes to waste. The honey goes into jars. The leftover honey on the cappings goes back to the bees. The wax becomes balms, candles, polish and wraps. And some of it ends up back in the hive again.

It's a small cycle, but it's one we're proud to be part of.

If you'd like to bring a little of our hives into your home, try our Peppermint Beeswax Lip Balm or our Lavender Cuticle Balm, both made with beeswax. Free local pickup is available, and we offer free local delivery to the 94536 zip code on orders of $35 or more. 🐝