# Best way to separate honey from cappings



## spieker (Jun 26, 2009)

I put my cappings in a clean plastic bag, which I punch holes into and hang inside of my extractor over night. Most of the honey drips out. Then, I remove the bag from the extractor and cut the bag so I can pull it apart and place on a cookie pan. The plastic bag is against the cookie pan with the wax cappings on top. Take outside and let the bees suck the left over honey up. By the end of the day, the cappings are clean.


----------



## johnth78 (May 26, 2012)

as to melting the cappings the melting point of bees wax is somewhere around 140 degrees, this is way above the point where the honey is degraded.


----------



## schmism (Feb 7, 2009)

When i got my extracting kit it came with a cappings tub. I let them set on the enclosed back porch which gets like 95deg and in a couple of days they had drained nicely.










I let the girls pick over the rest for a couple of days then melted the wax down.


----------



## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Drain and strain or solar melter


----------



## bbbthingmaker (Sep 26, 2010)

Put the cappings in a (knee high) nylon stocking. Nylon stockings will stretch a lot and hold quite a bit of cappings. Tie the top and hang it over a container to catch the honey. Leave it for several hours, (over night or longer). After it quits dripping, squeeze and squish it with your fingers and leave it to drip again. Lick your fingers ! When it quits dripping this time. Take it outside and dump it onto a tray or cookie sheet. The bees will clean any honey that's still in it. Then the cappings are ready to go into your solar wax melter. 
P.S. Wash the stocking before sneaking it back into your wife's drawer.


----------



## Nantom670 (Jul 29, 2011)

I put mine in a container from Walmart's or Fred's like the one above and sit it in my vehicle for a couple of hours and then bring it in the house and put some cheesecloth over a bowl and pour the honey and wax through it and then when all is poured into the cloth I take the 4 corners and pick them up and that will make a ball naturally and then I just squeeze the honey out and then I put the wax in a container and save it for when I melt it all down later. That is what I do with my frames of honey also except I use a deeper container so that I can let them sit upright. When I remove the capping from the frames I pierce them but when I bring them in while they are warm I just press the decapping tool against the frame and the honey pours out. Later I put those frames in my freezer for a while and when I need them I place them in the hive and the bees will clean them out and make new comb it seems before you think it possible. They do a great job of it, like they know what they are doing


----------



## ShelleyStuart (Jan 4, 2010)

I throw them into a 5-gallon tub, wash them, remove the cappings, then add even more honey to make mead. Not quite the traditional sense, but it have been very handy for my brewing projects.


----------



## honeybeegirl (Feb 17, 2015)

Thanks for great information and a good laugh!


----------



## windfall (Dec 8, 2010)

After draining in a warm place(hot car), we take all the cappings and the wax from combs we felt better to crush than extract (wonky stuff) and place them in a very large glass bowl in the oven, just low enough to melt the wax. Everything will seperate (gets stirred a couple times along the way to keep heat equal) wax to the top, honey to the bottom, and a slight scum layer of pollen and trash at the interface.
Take it out, let it cool. Wax peels right off with scum bonded to it...re process later
Honey that is left is definetly downgraded. But it seems just fine to us for cooking and jams.


----------



## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

Drain what you can and then float the cappings in water to get the rest of the honey. Make mead for the water/honey solution.


----------

