Hi Roger/all In response to you question yesterday about the laundry basket suspended in the black barrel. You asked whether the tubular filtering activity was created only along the sides and what happens to all the honey left at the base afterwards. I geuss first I must explain our laundry baskets. They stan about hip high and about half that wide at the top, tapering to a bit less than that at the bottom. All around the basket (which is smooth white plastic) are large egg sized oval holes. I placed normal sheeting as a filter on the inside and attached it by means of small plastic bolts (like the ones for number plates) and rubber washers. As the honey filters it does clogg the cloth, but because gunk rises, most of it blocks near the top, not the bottom. This is not a real tubul;ar filter as a result as there is no real downward flow, but it does beat the normal system as one has a far greater surface are through which filtering occures, you use the sun, and you get the gunk rising to the surface. I forgot to mention that the barrels I use are old food grade alcohol barrels - these have a small coating on the inside which stops rust etc. I am trying to get some of Cokes mystery formula barrels as their formula is very acidic and hence the barrels are stainless and the exact right size. When I make a place to insert the laundry basket I trimmed out the bottom of the barrel with a jigsaw (high speed steel light metal blades) and hence am able to use the unscrew cap on the other side as a draining point - one then jut places a bucket below the bin every few hours and drains out the honey so that there is an incentive for the honey to move out of the basket (if honey backs up agains the filter no filtering occurs naturally). As for the gooey mess at the bottom - I leave the whole setup in a cool spot, scrape it out with a spatchelor and put it in a tub, cover it with polystyrene chips and place it in one of my hives at home. They clean it up quite well. Keep well Garth Garth Cambray Camdini Apiaries Grahamstown Apis mellifera capensis Eastern Cape Prov. South Africa Time = Honey After careful consideration, I have decided that if I am ever a V.I.P the I. may not stand for important. (rather influential, ignorant, idiotic, intelectual, illadvised etc)