Thursday, May 17, 2012

Don't forget the honey comb...

If the mere perfection of those tiny little hexagons doesn't blow you away, how about the hundreds of cool things you can do with it?  
Here is a list of just some:  
waxing string to make it stronger, or lubricate your fishing lines with it, make clean burning candles, use it to fix a stuck window, use it as a natural polish for wood, make lotions, salves and lip balms with it.  Place whole hunks of it your honey jars to make fabulous chunk honey (then chew it right out of the jar, mmm)
I saved my comb from last year (after rinsing it out well and placing it in a plastic bag) and this year after harvesting more, I have delved into the alchemy portion of beekeeping and I love it!  
I bought some essential oils for fragrance, coconut oil (used in most of the lotions and balms) and olive oil (just for lotion) and set to work.  I highly recommend purchasing an old pot or even used crock pot for melting the wax.  It is messy, though not as messy as processing the honey.  
Remember wax has a low flash point and can ignite of heated too enthusiastically.  I tried a few different methods but I think melting the wax in water and then letting it cool works best.  You just lift the hunk of wax off floating on top
 



I cut into this before taking a picture unfortunately.





Here are some photos of the products I've made so far.  This lotion that is amazing!





and a lip balm that keeps you lips soft for hours!



I got the cute little tins as well as the essential oils at Apothecary Tinctura here in Denver.

I will post the recipes tomorrow.














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