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.

Separating cappings and honey: three routes, none of them free

Every 100 kg of honey leaves around 1.5 kg of wax in the cappings, and that wax is the cleanest in the apiary: new, white, never having held brood. It is the ideal wax for renewing your own foundation or for selling separately. So the question is not only how much honey you recover, but the quality each of the two comes out with — and each method takes its toll in a different place.

The melter is the comfortable route for the wax, but it heats: what comes out on the honey side is industrial honey, high in HMF, and it must not go into the same vessel as your table honey. If you use it, keep it separate and monitor it. A press avoids that heating — the honey does not suffer — but you still have to melt the cappings afterwards for the wax, and that honey usually comes out with an aftertaste from being pressed against wax, comb and debris. The capping centrifuge probably separates best, but it is a large investment and tedious work: you have to bring wax and honey back together and hold a constant temperature for it to come out right.

There is no single answer and I will not pretend otherwise: every beekeeper ends up with their own method depending on what they produce, what they value more — the wax or the honey — and how much work they are willing to put in. The only thing that does not change is the rule about not mixing: honey that has been through heat goes separately, always.

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.

¿Tienes alguna duda sobre Cappings Handling?

Can I mix capping honey with my table honey?

It depends how you separated it. If you used a press, the honey has seen no heat: the problem is not thermal, though it usually comes out with an aftertaste from being pressed against wax, comb and debris, so taste it before deciding.

If you used a melter, no. That honey comes out with far more thermal load and counts as industrial honey, high in HMF. Tipping it into the settling tank with your monofloral downgrades the whole vessel. It goes in its own batch and is sold separately.

How much wax comes from cappings?

As an order of magnitude, around 1.5 kg of rendered wax per 100 kg of honey. It is a reference, not a guarantee per batch: it depends on the cut, the state of the comb and how closely you uncap.

What is certain is the quality: it is the cleanest wax you will ever have, new, white and never having held brood. It is the wax worth using to renew your own foundation or to sell separately, which is why the aim of this category is not only recovering honey — it is getting that wax out as clean as possible.