Ok, with a few hives now, I have started to have problems with bridging comb (some refer to as burr comb or brace comb) clogging up my queen excluder, and other parts of the hive.
Now to keep the hive manageable, and to make sure I don’t dent the queen excluder, I need to remove this.
Now what can I do with small quantities of wax? I decided to try to make a candle.
First I collected all the wax from a few hives which needed to be cleaned up. I left it for a while for the bees to remove what they wanted from it. Bees don’t reuse wax, so there is no point leaving it for them.
Wax collected from a few hives I was getting behind on
Once I had done that, I took it home, and since I don’t have a solar wax melter (yet), I grabbed an old rice cooker and melted everything down with some water.
After everything was melted (liquid), I poured everything through a strainer into a small container. once It had set, mostly at the top was good wax, and the rubbish was at the bottom.
I chiseled off the bottom rubbish wax, and then I got ready to make a candle.
First I got my kit all in one place.
My kit for making candles
The wick I bought from Ecroyd Beekeeping*, the two little containers are from cheesecake we had for dessert the night before, and the two little blocks of wax are what I made from melting down the wax I collected over a few weeks.
The theory was simple. I would melt the wax again in my rice cooker…
Melting wax in my rice cooker
Once the wax was melted, I would pour it into one of my little molds, and somehow put the wick in the middle
First Candle setting
Ok, after waiting for ages, it set, and it was a bit of a minor disaster. Two problems. Firstly there was a huge crack on the top, and secondly I couldn’t get it out of the mold.
Doing a very quick Internet search, I learned that wax contracts when it cools, and that this causes cracking if different parts of the candle cool at different rates.
I was able to use this information to fix my second problem though. I put it in the freezer for a while, and then when I took it out, I just turned it upside down and shook it, and it dropped out no problems.
One of the suggested solutions to stop the cracking is to let the wax cool somewhere warm, like in the oven. This is so it will cool/set slower, and more even, thus no cracking.
I took this advice, and completely ignored it naturally! I decided that maybe if I cooled it faster, it would also cool more even, so I made another one, and I stuck it is the freezer to quickly cool.
candle cooling in freezer
So guess what happened, yep, no surprise really, it cracked again. Notice that this time I spread some butter around the mold to make it easier to come out. I think somebody somewhere may have also mentioned using soapy water, but the shower was in use, so I didn’t want to run the taps.
But when it comes down to it, the candle is for me, and its main function in life is to burn.
My first candle, burning
As can be seen from the picture, it has a huge crack in it, but it does indeed burn. Later when I get the hang of how to actually make candles, this quality will probably be considered a failure, but since it is my first candle, and it does actually burn, I am going to tag it as a success 
* I purchased the wick from Ecroyd Beekeeping Supplies Ltd. Even though I only ordered three small amounts of wick (2 metres each of three different types), they were happy to stick it in an envelope and post it to me, and it cost less than $4, including postage. Well done guys!
IMPORTANT NOTE
Wax burns. If you are melting it or anything like that, make sure you know what you are doing, you are being very careful, you are taking advice from somebody better informed than just me, and that you know where, and have handy a fire extinguisher (foam, NOT water based).
my fire extinguisher, always close by when boiling wax
