Cappings in apple press

[idg]

Has anyone tried pressing cappings in an apple press. I have two and a half buckets of cappings with considerable weight of honey.

 

[Finman]

. I have. It works.

 

[Teemore]

My press paid for itself in the first couple of buckets of cappings i put through it. Stick the cappings into a warming cabinet for 24hrs or so to get the best out of the press. The press also helps greatly when you discover just how far bees will fly to get oil seed rape.....

 

[YorkshireBees]

Of course you can press your cappings and yes I know how much honey can be contained in cappings but personally rather than mess about with a press I just give the bees the cappings back in a feeder and let them clean up the wax.

It saves me the time and effort of trying to extract the honey from them and the resulting cleaned wax is ready for melting down to make candles / show entries!

 

[Finman]

Of course you can press your cappings and yes I know how much honey can be contained in cappings but personally rather than mess about with a press I just give the bees the cappings back in a feeder and let them clean up the wax.

It saves me the time and effort of trying to extract the honey from them and the resulting cleaned wax is ready for melting down to make candles / show entries!

That makea no sense. You nurse your hives all the years around, and suddenly, when you harvest your yield, you are in a hurry.


.

 

[Zante]

EDIT: Whoops, wrong thread

 

[Eyeman]

Of course you can press your cappings and yes I know how much honey can be contained in cappings but personally rather than mess about with a press I just give the bees the cappings back in a feeder and let them clean up the wax.

25lb from cappings at £6 / lb= £150. Will buy all my foundation for next year and more.

 

[Poly Hive]

Spin dryer works very well....

PH

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Spin dryer works very well....

PH

Tried that once - SWMBO went bonkers - I'd forgotten to take out her best silk Sunday undercrackers before putting the cappings in.

 

[Hachi]

Tried that once - SWMBO went bonkers - I'd forgotten to take out her best silk Sunday undercrackers before putting the cappings in.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Put a piece of muslin or clean net curtain on the top of a bucket, tip the cappings onto the cloth and leave for a couple of days. Stir if needed. Most of the honey will end up in the bucket.

 

[YorkshireBees]

25lb from cappings at £6 / lb= £150. Will buy all my foundation for next year and more.

Ok, obviously the way I un-cap using a fork means a lot less honey in the cappings as I would guess max 5-6lbs honey in all of this years cappings.

I'm not losing the honey, I'm just feeding it back to the bees and getting the cappings cleaned up ready for using in the process.
I'm quite happy with my honey yield as it is and don't need to worry about the 1-2% of honey from the cappings.

Obviously when using a knife to un-cap (only every tried it once) you can end up with a lot more honey in the cappings.

 

[YorkshireBees]

That makea no sense. You nurse your hives all the years around, and suddenly, when you harvest your yield, you are in a hurry.
.

I didn't say I was in a rush and I definitely do not NURSE my bees all year round.

However I work full time and keep 15-20 hives as a hobby, so yes my time is limited.

 

[REDWOOD]

two buckets
one has lots 6 mm holes drilled in the lid
one has a lid with of fine mesh
put cappings in bucket with the fine mesh lid, invert over bucket with the lid full of holes, tape edges of lids, leave in a warm place for some time
Remove tape and divide buckets,
you should now have a bucket with nice clean honey and the other with almost dry cappings. The cappings can be further processed by removing the mesh lid and rinse with water, do this few times until wax is cleaning enough for melting

 

[YorkshireBees]

two buckets
one has lots 6 mm holes drilled in the lid
one has a lid with of fine mesh
put cappings in bucket with the fine mesh lid, invert over bucket with the lid full of holes, tape edges of lids, leave in a warm place for some time
Remove tape and divide buckets,
you should now have a bucket with nice clean honey and the other with almost dry cappings. The cappings can be further processed by removing the mesh lid and rinse with water, do this few times until wax is cleaning enough for melting

I'm not doubting your method for draining the honey but why rinse the cappings?
My point is there is, imho, no better method of cleaning the wax than to let the bees do it. As well as removing every last drop of honey the benefit is that the bees get it and it's not washed down the drain.

 

[Finman]

.
This is again very complicated. Do it and then you know how it went. I have bought apple presser to handle the cappings.
.

 

[REDWOOD]

I've never given the cap pings back to the bees, not because there is nothing wrong about it but I try to feed my bees when the ivy is flowering which is days before I remove the honey.



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[Finman]

I've never given the cap pings back to the bees, not because there is nothing wrong about it but .

Everything is wrong on that back feeding:

- When you feed back, that value of honey is under 40 cents/kg, lower than sugar.
- so in feeding back the capping honey the value is round zero. And the amount of that honey is big