Last year we cobbled together a solar extractor, having sorted out the apiary fencing last week I thought it was a good excuse to tidy up the rest of the apiary.

Having mucked out all the gunk from the extractor tray and unclogged the "filter" (posh name for a few holes) I whipped out the wax we've collected so far and set about trying to clean it up on Sunday.

My High tech rendering facility just starting out:

Earwigs, bits of bee and old comb cells very much in evidence I fear.


Almost done:


Where old tights go to die in the Nellie Household:


Filtered and ready to go into blocks:


The final haul, a kilo of wax:


And just for comparison, against a block of honeycomb wax I did after extracting the honey last autumn: