Bleaching Beeswax In the Sun!

[riverbee]

last fall i purchased some pretty dirty beeswax cappings from a side liner beek in minnesota. the beek takes his cappings, frame scrapings and throws them in a big solar melter, but does not wash the cappings or filter, and the solar unit is aluminum, so the wax may have reacted a bit to this? not sure. he just takes and breaks the piles of melted wax out and throws the chunks in 5 gallon pails. so what i knew i had was wax with honey, propolis, bee parts, dirt, and whatever else in it. i normally run all my wax through a solar melter, but i have a filtering method that gives me very clean wax.

this winter i took his wax and boiled it on the stove, it was pretty dirty stuff and full of honey residue. i gave up. also the wax was a very dark tan leathery color. this spring, i took the round chunks, and square chunks i tried to filter last fall, and ran all of the wax through my solar melter to get all the gunk out. for some of it i was still not happy with the color, so i decided to try and bleach the wax lighter.  also, i just wanted to do an experiment on how light i could get this wax.

this is a pic of what i started with after boiling on the stove.  the picture does not really show how leathery dark brown this wax was:
maybe this one one of the lighter chunks.........
 


so what i did was cut the round blocks and square blocks i had filtered up into small chunks with a chisel. i used aluminum square weber grill pans or bake pans to place the chunks in. i took a window and a jury rigged 2 inch plywood outer cover someone made and gave to me for some reason........ (well, i know why, i hoard bees and equipment and it was free........ ) put some window/door tape on the top of it, set the weber pans with wax in the free jury rigged homemade sort of outer cover, set the window on top, pressed down to seal it to the strip and shallow box and placed the box in the sun.  i wish i would have put a thermometer inside the box, but i didn't. 

after about a week in june, this was the color of the wax bleached by the sun:



i bleached some of his other wax to a light yellow color, (real pretty stuff) not leaving it out in the sun so long.

pretty cool! 

if you are looking to lighten wax, or bleach it, the sun works well!  i was sort of amazed!

[Lburou]

 That is too easy.          

[Perry]

Wow, that's some difference!

[CBT]

Is the lost color on the bottom of the wax?

[riverbee]

no cbt, the lost color is not on the bottom of the wax, only residue of what has not been filtered out, similar to boiling wax on a stove, wax rises, the residue is heavier and goes on the bottom.  the sun bleaches the wax.  all of it. the wax will melt from the heat of the sun, and bleaches or lightens the color when liquid. it's pretty cool.  this wax would be exposed to the sun from mid morning until sunset on my deck.

i am looking for the pix i took when the wax was liquid. the wax color changes, and you can see the color change/difference by swapping out already lightening in color and something i just put in the box in a liquid state, and also when it firms up at the end of the day.

the only thing on the bottom of the wax, even when liquid would be any residue that has not been filtered out. this settles to the bottom of the pan. 

hope i answered your question?

[Mikey N.C.]

That's neat, what will you be making with it.
Btw you know how the yellow wax smells (candle)  wonder how sun bleached wax smells.

[neillsayers]

Thanks RB,
I will be trying this soon with some brood comb wax I rendered recently. It's almost brown.

[riverbee]

mikey, thanks, i will be making candles with the wax pretty soon, and it smells wonderful!  last week, before i took the last batch out of the box, i had honey bees all over the window for a couple days, even though the seal on it is pretty good to keep heat in and rain out.  i put my nose to the window, and i could smell the wonderful smell of beeswax!  taking it out, yes, it smells awesome!

neil, it may be too late in the year to bleach brood comb?  the higher the sun the better, and more exposure to sun.... more time for the wax to melt and melted/liquid wax to be exposed to the sun's rays. it is the liquid wax the sun bleaches. (you will be able to see this and the difference in liquid wax). i will get some bleaching from wax that is not totally liquid on the top, but you need the suns rays to heat/melt/make it liquid to bleach the pan of wax. this time of year may be different for you than me.  i have some wax out now, but it's been nothing but clouds and rain for about 3 weeks. it has lightened good enough to pull it, but really can't do anymore this season.  it was a great experiment for me and next year i will be doing some darker bridge comb and scrapings, etc. hope this helps neil!  i was totally dumbfounded when i saw the difference of the color of the dark wax i had turn white in less than a week.
i am totally hooked on this now and any darker comb i have will get a sun run!

[neillsayers]

Thanks RB,

Your right, of course, the sun is lower in the sky these days. I have a few pounds of rendered wax I will try this on midsummer next year.

[riverbee]

neil, you can start before midsummer, and i started mine in early june. nice hot weather with the high sun, and sun exposure all day.

[apisbees]

22nd of June is first day of summer and the longest day of the year.

[blueblood]

Thanks River!

[riverbee]

you are welcome dave!

i seem to have deleted the photographs i took of the window box and pix i took while the wax was being bleached in the box.......

i used a very shallow box, just enough room to fit the weber pans in with the window over it. about 2" in depth. i think the square weber pans or square generic cake pans are about 1 1/2" in depth.
 
the wax i chiseled up into small chunks, the smaller the chunks are, the quicker they melt and the liquid is exposed longer to the sun.  most of the pans contained anywhere between 1/2" or 1" or so of beeswax when liquid and when hardened.  i did this because i had to move the box from time to time and didn't want liquid wax slopping out of the pans. also, i think doing small chunks of beeswax; these chunks melt quickly and the faster melt brought the wax liquid quicker and would bleach the wax in less time. not sure i am saying this right? just meant if your wax is liquid, the more time it is exposed to the sun to bleach. 

i have kept 4 pans in for the past few weeks, but our weather has been cloudy, rainy, overcast, and even on clear days we have only been in the 60's to upper 70's.  not enough to completely melt or bleach (except maybe the surface of the wax).  i am going to pull it, but will snap a photo before i do.

also, it is very easy to remove the wax from the pans; when completely cooled, just turn the pan over, tap the bottom and pop the wax out and reuse.  make sure you check the pan before you re-use it for the next batch........   liquid wax can and does find any teeny hole to leak out of.  just hold the pan up to the light or sun. if there is a puncture in it, even very small, you will see it.