Final Prepper

25 Ways to Use Beeswax on the Homestead

Do you raise honey bees? If so, you should know that their usefulness extends well beyond the production of honey. In addition to pollinating your plants and ensuring a healthy ecosystem, bees also produce honeycomb.

While it may not sound fancy, honeycomb produces many pounds of beeswax which can then be used around the home. Here are some of the best ways to use beeswax on the homestead – no matter where you live.

What is Beeswax?

Beeswax is made from the honeycomb of honeybees. Bees consume about eight times the amount of honey that will need to produce one pound of beeswax. This one pound of wax requires an impressive 150,000 flight miles! Why waste it?

When bees mix pollen oils into honeycomb, this turns the naturally white wax into a luxurious yellow or brown color. When purchased commercially, beeswax can be bought in yellow, white, or bleached shades. While yellow wax will be that which was extracted directly from the honeycomb, white and bleached beeswax have been altered.

Beeswax is a medical aid for a variety of conditions, such as lowering cholesterol and relieving pain. It can also be used to reduce swelling, treat ulcers, eliminate diarrhea, and treat hiccups. White beeswax, as well as yellow beeswax treated with alcohol, are also commonly used as stiffening agents in cooking.

Beeswax works well around the homestead because it contains a mixture of crucial elements like creotic acid, hydrocarbons, alcohol, minerals, esters, pigments, and water. These combinations give it a low melting point, making it possible to work with it without needing special equipment.

How Do I Find Beeswax for the Homestead?

Beeswax is produced by honey bees, used to create honeycomb for their hives. Each hive will contain several sheets of beeswax comb. If you raise your own bees for honey, you can easily harvest the beeswax to use around the homestead. If not, contact a local beekeeper.

Extra beeswax is usually not thrown away after the extraction process but instead melted into blocks to be used later on. It can also be purchased in bulk online or at local craft stores.

If you are harvesting beeswax from your own hives, you will want to allow gravity to remove as much honey from the wax as possible after extracting your honey. Place your wax in a five-gallon pail and top it off with water before pouring it through a colander to wash it. Then, place the washed wax in a double boiler to melt it.

You should always use a double boiler to melt beeswax and avoid melting beeswax directly on a n open flame. It’s extremely flammable, so don’t leave the room while you are working.

Afterwards, you can strain the melted wax through a few layers of cheesecloth to remove any particles. This can then be produced into a block mold to use around your homestead.

How to Use Beeswax on the Homestead

Beeswax has multiple purposes, with a delightful scent and a unique texture that makes it ideal for a variety of homestead tasks. You can use it by itself or with a combination of other ingredients to create products that have multiple uses around your home and farm.

1. Beeswax candles

It never hurts to have extra candles lying around the house for emergency situations. Plus, beeswax candles make excellent gifts! You can use rolled sheets of beeswax or beeswax tapers, or simply melt down beeswax chunks from your own hives. Add essential oils for a lovely scent.

2. Sewing buttons

You can use beeswax in sewing to help make it easier to attach buttons. All you need to do is cut your thread to the length needed, then wrap the thread around a block for wax and sliding it along the wax. Push it down with your finger, and the thread will be much easier to knit.

3. Unstick a drawer or zipper

Just a little bit of beeswax can help make your drawers (or even your windows!) slide a bit easier. Just use a few drops of wax to lubricate the sashes. You can even put beeswax on the teeth of your zipper to make it easier to open.

4. Wax wooden furniture

If you have furniture or even structural elements (like ceiling beams) that you want to have a little extra shine, consider mixing equal parts of linseed oil, turpentine, and beeswax. Warm the mixture and apply with a rag.

5. Coat your cooking pans

Don’t worry about using butter or other unhealthy oils to coat your pans. Use beeswax! Just rub a small amount inside your favorite frying or sauce pan before use. Make sure the pan is slightly warm.

6. Seal envelopes

Don’t let your tongue get tired with all the mail you need to send – particularly all those cards at Christmas time! Instead, use beeswax to seal the envelope and you’ll save yourself a lot of effort.

7. Beeswax food wraps

Instead of relying on plastic, use beeswax. You can make your own reusable beeswax food wraps that are eco-friendly -and also better for your health.

8. Preserve a bronze or patina

You can also seal color and shine into copper by rubbing it with warm beeswax. Just polish off any excess with a rag.

9. Use beeswax for canning

Beeswax was used for hundreds of years to prevent jam spoilage during preservation. All you need to do is apply a coat of wax over the food between uses.

10. Clean your grill

If you like to grill – but hate the clean-up process – use beeswax. Make sure it’s warm, but then you can apply it to your grilling rack before use. It will prevent the buildup of food residue, but remember not to use beeswax while the grill is hot – it can flash up on you.

11. Loosen rusted nuts and lubricate screws

If your old screws aren’t twisting quite the way they should, you can use beeswax to smooth the drive and remove corrosion. All you need to do is rub a bit of wax over the threads to keep them lubricated.

12. Clean your iron

If your iron has developed heat marks and is leaving stains on your clothes every time you use it, you might want to wipe it down with some beeswax. This should remove any residue.

13. Wax your own cheese

If you make your own cheese on the farm, regardless of whether it is from cows, sheep, or goats, you can make your own natural covers with beeswax. Allow the cheese to dry before applying hot wax. This will give it a proper seal.

14. Fix frayed rope

If you find that the rope you like to use around the homestead is beginning to unravel, you can fix it by wrapping a waxed piece of string around the tip of the rope a dozen times. Tie the loose ends and trim any excess.

15. Dye fabric

Beeswax can be used in a method of fabric dyeing known as batiking. This involves covering fabric that is not meant to be dyed with removable wax. You’ll need a bit of paraffin, too, but otherwise beeswax will do the trick for you.

16. Use beeswax on your saws

If you are preparing to use a hand saw in new wood, consider using some beeswax. If you rub the wax on the sawteeth, it will help them cut through wood more easily.

17. Condition wooden cutting boards

Before you break in your new wooden cutting board, condition it with beeswax. Combine a half-teaspoon of wax to a cup of mineral oil, and heat it up until the wax has melted. Apply it to the board using a soft cloth.

18. Make a pain-relieving salve

Beeswax has anti-inflammatory properties that make it an excellent item to reduce your aches and pains. Mix chickweed, wormwood, olive oil, and beeswax to create individual tins of pain-relieving salves.

19. Use beeswax as a fire starter

If you like to camp or simply enjoy having fires at home, use beeswax. You can brush melted beeswax into tiny squares of cardboard. Pack them with you, and they’ll help you start your next fire in a pinch.

20. Prevent rust

Apply beeswax to your favorite cast iron pans, hand tools, and shovels. This should prevent them from rusting out.

21. Polish concrete

If you have concrete surfaces, like countertops, in your home, you can use beeswax to give them a natural luster. All you need to do is rub melted beeswax on the surface, let it dry, and then wipe it away.

22. Soothe itchy skin

Did you accidentally come into contact with poison oak, poison ivy, or another itch-inducing substance? Consider using beeswax to heal the itch. You might want to mix it with some olive oil or chickweed powder to make it more effective – and easier to spread.

23. Propagate your plants

If you enjoy grafting new plants, consider using beeswax. It can easily hold two parts of plant material together, making it a natural and non-toxic solution.

24. Beeswax cosmetics

Beeswax is used in many popular toiletry and cosmetic items, including lip balm, hand and foot cream, and body butter. You may need to add ingredients like coconut oil, shea butter, or magnesium flakes, but otherwise, they’ll come together quickly and work like a charm.

25. Waterproof leather

Before you hang that saddle up, pull out the beeswax. By combining equal parts of tallow, neatsfoot oil, and beeswax, you can make a salve that can be rubbed on your saddles, gloves, or work boots.

Are There Any Drawbacks to Using Beeswax?

The short answer – not really! Because beeswax is a natural product, it is safe when used in most functions around the homestead. However, if you plan on consuming beeswax in any form, make sure you consult a medical professional first.

While it’s believed to be safe in treating most conditions, as well as when applied to the skin, it’s good to consult a doctor if you have any preexisting conditions or concerns.

Should I Use Beeswax on the Homestead?

Beeswax is a great tool to have around any home – but particularly around the homestead. If you live in a rural area or want to become more self-sufficient, beeswax is an excellent tool that has a long shelf life.

You won’t have to worry about running out any time soon! Consider using beeswax for these twenty-five most common tasks around the homestead today.

Other self-sufficiency and preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us

Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation

Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns

Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need

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While it may not sound fancy, honeycomb produces many pounds of beeswax which can then be used around the home. Here are some of the best ways to use beeswax

Back to Basics: How to Stockpile Food for Emergencies

Yesterday I began a new series called, Back to Basics. People every day can simply look at events happening anywhere in the world and understand how taking some simple steps to ensure you can handle minor emergencies, isn’t crazy. Prepping to a certain level makes sense for everyone, regardless of where you live.

This series was designed to go back to the basics of prepping, obviously. Today I wanted to share tips for how to stockpile food for emergencies that anyone can use. I will focus on preppers who are just starting out, but I think some ideas in the topics below could be useful to anyone looking to ensure their family has food and does not go hungry. This article will also have dozens of links to other content on the subject for additional reading.

I believe there are 5 main components to survival that everyone needs to consider. They are simply Water, Food, Shelter, Security and Hygiene. Yesterday we talked about the need for water and how you can easily store water for emergencies that render your traditional methods of obtaining water impossible. Water is more important to life than food or at least you can live longer without food than you can water, but they are both important.

Why do you need to stockpile food for emergencies?

If you are new to prepping, you may have something that triggered your awareness of the subject. Preppers have many reasons for doing what they do and no two preppers are alike. Some are preparing for the end of the world, but most see situations in our daily lives that give a perfect reason to stock up supplies. You have only to look at the recent winter storm that affected large swaths of the Eastern Seaboard to have a perfect example of why you don’t want to be left without a means to feed your family.

Greeks are finding food, medicine and fuel in short supply.

It seems almost cliché at this point, but invariably it always happens when a winter storm is forecast. Everyone rushes out to the store and certain food supplies are wiped out. Images of empty shelves are shown on practically every newscast and eventually prepper websites. Food shortages during simple storms are common if not expected. We don’t really even blink anymore because we are so used to this practice of waiting until the last-minute and then hitting the local grocery store on the way home from work to grab some basic necessities or comfort food.

If you can’t live for more than 3 days without going to the store, it’s time to reevaluate your family’s readiness. The statistic we hear most of the time is that the average home has only 3 days’ worth of food in it. If this is true, where would you be on day three if you had not been able to make it to the grocery store before the storm? What if instead of a snow storm, a virus outbreak had occurred and everyone was told to stay indoors to prevent infection? Each of us should have more food on hand that our families and friends will eat than is absolutely necessary to prevent surprises from leaving you hungry.

How much food do you need to store?

In the example above I used a virus outbreak as the condition that would prevent you from getting to the store. There are others though and weather could certainly be one of them. Some storms where I live have left roads impassable for upwards of a week. Could we walk to the store? Sure, but what if the stores having already been cleared of just about all of the food were closed? What if power outages prevented them from conducting any transactions? These are things you should consider.

Prepping is not something I ever consider you can accomplish. By that I mean, you are never going to be fully prepared. You may be much better prepared than some or all of the people around you, but you will never be 100% self-sufficient. Prepping should be done incrementally even if you have more money than you know what to do with because as you start to stock up food you learn lessons.

A good rule of thumb for me is to start small when you are beginning to stockpile food for emergencies. You don’t need a year of freeze-dried foods to start with. Try just having a week or two of extra groceries that your family already eats. This is accomplished without any exotic storage needs usually or 5 gallon buckets of grains you have to figure out how to prepare.

Premium Fresh MREs Meal with Heaters

My wife purchases the groceries and I started out by giving her extra money to simply buy more food. I did this in the beginning because she is a much better shopper than I am and will always save more money than me. This worked great because she was easily able to fill our pantry and had plenty of meals planned to last us well over 30 days. Sure, at the end of that 30 days of food we would be getting into more exotic cans of mushrooms and soups that are better left as part of a recipe as opposed to your entire meal, but we wouldn’t starve.

What are the best types of food to stockpile?

Once we had a month worth of food and water stored up, I started looking at other options. I think each person should have a layered approach to food storage. This gives you flexibility and more importantly variety that as you go out to 6 months or 1 year or 2 will be important. My own personal goal is 2 years’ worth of food stockpiled for my family but that isn’t made up of only food from our grocery store. That can certainly be done though with a very good rotation plan.

Food storage should ideally cover the following:

Short Term Food Storage – The best and simplest foods are like I said above, what your family eats every day. One thing to consider is that the bulk of this food should be non-perishable in case you lose power. Canned foods are great as well as pastas, drink mixes and staples. These usually last at least a year.

Medium Term Food Storage – For the 5 – 10 year range MRE’s are a great option although they are heavier and their convenience comes at a higher price. I have several boxes of these and I like MRE’s because they are self-contained and don’t really need any water. Freeze dried camping foods like Mountain House are another great option to just add hot water to. Rice and beans make great additions to this category because you don’t really have to do anything crazy to store them as long as they are kept cool and dry.

Long Term Food Storage – When you start to look at foods that will keep for many years you get into stored grains like Hard Red Winter Wheat that you store in sealed 5 gallon buckets. Freeze dried food from any one of many suppliers out there keep for 20 years usually and are individually wrapped Mylar packets. They require water to re-hydrate but the taste can be surprisingly good. Make sure you have seasonings though….

Renewable Food Storage – This is when you have to get your inner farmer working. Renewable foods are an intensive garden, small livestock like chickens or rabbits and the occasional wild game caught either through hunting or snares. In the worst disasters, your food will run out so having a plan for that ahead of time will help you prepare.

vegetables

For a well-rounded plan, growing your own food will give you the most flexibility.

How do you plan for your food eventually running out?

I have a mix of the food storage options above. We eat on our grocery store items every day, but I also have MRE’s and a pretty large amount of freeze-dried foods stored. We also have the grains I mentioned and the all-important grain mill to grind them into flour. Several hundred pounds of rice and beans round out the equation.

Stockpiling food is only the start. We have a garden and small flock of chickens. The stored food is just to get us through the worst of the disaster. Hopefully before our food runs out whatever disaster has happened will be mitigated and life will have returned to some sense of normality. If not, we have a huge leg up that will allow us to further harvest our garden to put away food like the pioneers had to do. It is an approach that gives us some sense of security and prepares us to come out on the other side still alive.

What is your plan to stockpile food for emergencies?

On a different note, here’s some other self-sufficiency and preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The Lost Ways (The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us)
Survival MD (Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation)
Backyard Liberty (Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns…)
Alive After the Fall (Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need)
The Lost ways II (4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis)
The Patriot Privacy Kit (Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps)