Old Wax

Old farmer Bob, who I bought the hives from, never used an Queen excluder. I know this because I melted down all the wax from the honey supers only to find them filled with brood cocoons. Wow! Well here's something else I didn't know about till now. They're like little silk liners in each cell. The problem is that they certainly soak up the wax. I lost much wax to these darn things. I wonder if I wrap up the cocoons in fine metal mesh, weight it down, and boil the wad if I'll get back enough wax to be worth while? My Wife make soap. She said bees wax is a major ingredient. So I want to get as much as possible.

The back pot is raw boiled comb. Cocoons and all. The front pot is filtered wax on water. I've had enough of the kitchen today so the rest of the wax is going to the solar melter tomorrow.
I'm so glad that I have excluders on both hives now. Next time I take wax it'll be so much more cleaner to start with. Which reminds me that I'm using Plasticell foundation. Well that's just in the supers that are permanent. So for all the honey supers I add next year I'll use only wax foundation. This may all work out yet.