Honey cappings and hives with CBPV

[Beekeeper Brownie]

Good morning,

I'm starting the summer honey harvest later on today and will be taking 16 supers off hives with and without CBPV. I have not had to deal with cappings from hives with CBPV before. In all previous years I've put cappings into English feeders for the hives to recover honey and dry off the wax and then take off the dry wax, this has worked fine for 8/9 years for me. I can't easily separate what cappings come off what hives, I can process all the good supers first and leave the ones off hives which have had CBPV until last and separate their cappings.

Two questions really:
1. I am assuming here there is a risk of CBPV being transmitted on the wet cappings? Please correct me if I'm wrong
2. What do people usually do with their wet cappings and how do they dry/clean them up?

Thanks

 

[Murox]

Just my opinion 1.a theoretical risk maybe which guess could be increased with the way you deal with wet cappings.
2. I put mine into a mesh bag and let it hang inside an empty extractor which is inside a hot conservatory for a few days. Then I simply dump them into a bucket ready for dealing with.

 

[Eyeman]

My capping go straight into a sieve above a bowl then into an oven to strain the honey out. It’s surprising how many jars you get. Then wax is steam processed in the usual way. Removes any theoretical risk.

 

[Beekeeper Brownie]

@Eyeman Interesting, I guess at around 40ish degrees and use for cooking honey?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

In all previous years I've put cappings into English feeders for the hives to recover honey and dry off the wax and then take off the dry wax

Always a faff and a waste of a beekeeper's time - I did it once years ago when I was fresh faced and naive - never made the mistake twice.

1. I am assuming here there is a risk of CBPV being transmitted on the wet cappings? Please correct me if I'm wrong

A risk, but very small I would say

2. What do people usually do with their wet cappings and how do they dry/clean them up?

wash them in cold water:
I put the cappings into an old settling tank, fill it with water (I use the 'jet' setting on the hose nozzle so it really mixes everything up) leave overnight, drain off the water and repeat three or four times - no need to dry the cappings, just get then all into a big bain marie (I bought mine from a catering supplies company) with three kilos of cappings (as much as I wash at one time in a 40 Kilo tank - the cappings, loosely filled, not packed down will fill half the tank) you will then get all the clean wax settling on the top, then the slumgum floating in the water - if you're lucky you can get almost all the wax off in one go, just leaving a few ounces mixed in the slumgum (throw all that into a 30lb bucket to cool and you can salvage the rest if you can be bothered.

 

[Moobee]

Good morning,

I'm starting the summer honey harvest later on today and will be taking 16 supers off hives with and without CBPV. I have not had to deal with cappings from hives with CBPV before. In all previous years I've put cappings into English feeders for the hives to recover honey and dry off the wax and then take off the dry wax, this has worked fine for 8/9 years for me. I can't easily separate what cappings come off what hives, I can process all the good supers first and leave the ones off hives which have had CBPV until last and separate their cappings.

Two questions really:
1. I am assuming here there is a risk of CBPV being transmitted on the wet cappings? Please correct me if I'm wrong
2. What do people usually do with their wet cappings and how do they dry/clean them up?

Thanks

Ref 2. If no risk of disease I put them in a feeder above a crownboard for the bees to clean out, which they usually do leaving lovely clean wax behind.

 

[robmort]

Don't get cappings because I use a heat gun to uncap; no mess, no waste.

 

[Beekeeper Brownie]

Thanks for the replies all.

I'll go down the washing route

 

[Dekzion]

Don't get cappings because I use a heat gun to uncap; no mess, no waste.

Can you expand on that? do the caps just melt away?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Can you expand on that? do the caps just melt away?

as longs as they are fresh white cappings with an air pocket behind.

 

[Dekzion]

as longs as they are fresh white cappings with an air pocket behind.

sounds like witchcraft. gotta give it a go thanks.

 

[robmort]

Can you expand on that? do the caps just melt away?

Plenty of past threads on the subject and on Youtube. Just use a heat gun to melt the cappings with a quick pass over the comb. They usually open by themselves but even if not, a quick scrape over while melted with an uncapping comb opens them all.