Cappings Handling

Manual and stainless capping presses from €149, wooden presses, centrifuges and SIPA® multifunction melters. Up to €19,995.

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Economy Wax Press

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Joshua Ivars
Joshua Ivars
With over 15 years of experience in beekeeping, Joshua collaborates with the national beekeeping congress as part of the scientific committee in the area of innovation and sustainability.

Melter honey does not go back in with the table honey

As an order of magnitude, every 100 kg of honey leaves around 1.5 kg of wax in the cappings, and that wax is the cleanest you will ever have: new, white, never having held brood. Honey goes with it, and that is where the temptation lies: melt the whole lot of cappings and recover everything at once. You do recover it, but what comes out is not the honey that went in.

Honey out of a capping melter comes darker, tastes different and carries a lot more thermal load. It is still honey and it sells, but it goes in its own batch and does not join the table honey: tip it into the settling tank with your monofloral and you have just downgraded the whole vessel. If what you want is to recover honey without punishing it, drain first and press afterwards; leave the melter for the wax.

Spinners - Bee wax and honey separation machines

Cappings Handling

The cappings you leave in the tray are honey and wax, and most beekeepers throw both away for want of a way to separate them.

How much honey is in there

Freshly cut cappings are soaked. Draining by gravity recovers part of it; pressing, considerably more. On a big harvest, that is a percentage of your production you were giving away.

And capping wax is the cleanest wax in the apiary: it is new, white wax that has never housed brood. It is the wax worth using for candles and cosmetics, and the one that fetches the best price if you sell it.

Press or centrifuge

  • Manual press (€149-425) — squeezes and extracts the honey. Simple, no electricity, and the wax block comes out almost ready to melt. The dismountable stainless one (€329) is the one that truly gets clean; wooden presses are traditional and work, but are harder to leave spotless.
  • Capping centrifuge — separates by spinning rather than pressure. Faster and less effort, but dearer and with more parts.

The multifunction melter

The SIPA® 2-in-1 (€1,399) does both in sequence: it separates the honey and melts the wax in the same step. It is the step up for anyone processing cappings from hundreds of hives who does not want two machines.

The heat rule

The honey that comes out is still honey for sale: it must not be overheated. Wax melts at 61-65 ºC, and above 140 ºC it degrades. Working hot without control is how you turn a premium product into a mediocre one.

Melting is in wax melters; uncapping in uncapping equipment.