Mike said:

Usually, the wax you get from cappings are chemical
>free.  If not, then you need to consider that your
>honey is contaminated as well.


Neither statement is entirely 'true'.  Wax is wax, only reason cappings
might have less contamination are:

1) cappings wax is newer, may have been produced AFTER the exposure event, or
2) cappings DILUTE some of the contaminants  found in old wax.

Keep in mind, bees don't alway use new wax for cappings -- under heavy
brooding or a heavy nectar flow they will tear down wax from one part of
the hive, move it to another.

And sorry Bob, but since bees move wax around, your brood nest is not safe,
although the odds are that it may be less contaminated than wax in the
honey supers, but not guarantee.

Also, volatiles from organics quickly permeate throughout the air inside a
colony.  (See our book chapter, oft cited herein)

As per contaminated wax = contaminated honey -- again, depending on the
chemical and its partitioning coefficients, any contaminant may occur in
both the wax and honey; or in the honey, or in the wax.  Some chemicals
move to water-based substances quicker, some to waxy materials, some to both.

I assume most if not all of you know that we've spent 30 years researching
the movements of chemicals through beehives, thousands of chemical samples
-- so I'm summarizing our data, not giving an opinion.

Jerry

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