Cleaning Cappings - the Easy Way (Hobbyist) <wax> First step: feed them back to the bees in a wash tub. They'll bee dry in a couple of hours on a warm day when the bees are flying. Second step: place the cappings in a recycled nylon stocking, using a No. 10 can, with both ends removed, as a chute. Close end with bread wrapper tie. Third step: swish stocking thru warm water until the color of the water is clear. Fourth step: hang stocking up to drip dry. Fifth step: place stocking in a solar wax melter--mine measures roughly 15 inches high by 20 inches wide by 36 inches long, the resting pan of which is covered with freezer paper--any side up--with the mouth of the resting pan having a six-inch milk filter thru which the melted wax passes before dripping into a lower crystal clean one-pound aluminum loaf pan. Nota bene: The paper placement keeps the resting pan clean at all times--don't use the recommended wire mesh. It's totally unnecessary. Remove the collector pan the next day: the wax will pop out easily and it will be thoroughly clean, even the base, ready for any use--NO scraping or reprocessing necessary. The next time, start w/ clean freezer paper and filters. [My blocks of beeswax, so prepared, have taken blue ribbons at the county and state fairs for many many years]. I KNOW OF NO SIMPLER, EASIER OPERATION. **John Iannuzzi, Ph.D. **38 years in apiculture **12 hives of Italian honeybees **At Historic Ellicott City, Maryland, 21042, U.S.A. (10 miles west of Baltimore, Maryland) [9772 Old Annapolis Rd - 410 730 5279] **"Forsooth there is some good in things evil For bees extract sweetness from the weed" -- Bard of Avon **Website: http://www.xmetric.com/honey **Email: [log in to unmask] [1jan981031est]