cambridgeshire-honey

[cambridgeshire-honey]

First hive inspection of 2024

[cambridgeshire-honey]

[cambridgeshire-honey]

How to make beeswax wraps

Beeswax wraps are a great way to store food. They are safe, hygenic, and better for the environment as you don’t use any plastic.

They’re easy to make at home, here are the instructions, and photos for each step are in the next post.

You will need:

- 1 bar of pure beeswax - A piece of clean cotton material - Greasproof paper - An iron

How to make wax wraps from beeswax:

1. Grate the bar of wax 2. Sprinkle the wax onto a piece of cotton 3. Put greaseproof paper underneath and over the top of the the cotton and wax 4. Iron on a cotton heat, until all the wax is melted. Go right to the edges of the material 5. Peel off the greaseproof paper 6. Hang the wax paper to dry 7. When it's dry, you can trim the edges with scissors to remove any threads

And that's it! You can use the beeswax paper for all sorts of things - wrapping sandwiches, cheese, biscuits... anything you like!

[cambridgeshire-honey]

These are the photos for each step of making beeswax wraps. Written instructions for how to make beeswax wraps can be found in the post above.

[cambridgeshire-honey]

I keep some of my hives in the sheep field at Buckden Towers. It’s a beautiful place, and an important historical building - Catherine of Aragon was imprisoned here in 1533.

[cambridgeshire-honey]

I’ve been making beeswax recently, and have won some prizes!

[cambridgeshire-honey]

This is a swarm that I found in Priory Park in St Neots this summer. Collecting a swarm is quite easy as the bees are normally very docile.

The last picture with the branch on top of the box shows a few specs of pure wax. The swarm was suspended from this branch and the bees had started making the honey comb.

[cambridgeshire-honey]

The entrance of the hive with healthy bees.

[cambridgeshire-honey]

The frames have to be positioned correctly in the hive, otherwise the bees try to fill the gaps themselves with wax. It’s interesting for us, but not great for them as they have less room to walk around inside.

[cambridgeshire-honey]

This year I have two types of honey. Liquid honey and set honey. 

[cambridgeshire-honey]

Inspection of hive 9  

[cambridgeshire-honey]

Hives at Willingham 2010

[cambridgeshire-honey]

Frame with bees and brood.

[cambridgeshire-honey]

This is me at the Cambridge Beekeeping Association tent at the Fenland Show in 2014. I’ve been keeping bees since 2007, and I currently have 8 hives.

[cambridgeshire-honey]

Introducing Fra-honey

This blog is by Francisca Shaw-Fra, a bee keeper in Cambridgeshire. It will document the life of a bee keeper and give tips and ideas for anyone interested in keeping bees as a hobby.