Freeze Cut Comb?

[Black Creek]

i've looked a bit but havent found any threads that directly tackle this problem. I know that some folks store their old combs in plastic bags after freezing them to kill off moth eggs. And it seems to me that i read once that you are supposed to freeze your comb honey so that there is no chance of a moth egg hatching in the box and really grossing out a potential customer. But what i'm worried about is that if i freeze my comb honey that it will cause it to crystalize in the cells. Or that if i have chunk honey in the jar and topped off with filtered honey that the prefrozen chunks may cause the entire jar to start crystalizing. Am i just overly worried for no reason? I have a large plastic tub full of chunks from my very 1st honey harvest. I'm a bit worried that i'm not doing something right.

[honeyman46408]

One of the reasons for freezing comb honey is so it WON`T crystalize, I don`t sell a lot of comb & chunked honey so I store it in the freezer.

[Dan Williamson]

If you have the space you can just place whole supers in the freezer.

There is a chance that there are minute wax worms in your comb honey that can't be seen until they get bigger. You need to freeze the comb to kill any that might be present. You don't want any of them to suddenly show up once you've packaged the comb honey.

[ScadsOBees]

Because of the high sugar content, honey won't actually freeze in the freezer, it just gets really really stiff. It actually slows crystalization down to a standstill, as honeyman said. It doesn't freeze like water.

-rick

[Black Creek]

good, i didnt think it would actually freeze solid or anything, but i thought if honey was stored at too low of a temp. (50's??) then it almost guaranteed fast crystalization. so i was thinking putting it in the freezer might prime it to crystalize faster. i didnt want to mess up too bad.

i'll be making room in the freezer tonight for them.

[Oldbee]

D. Williamson. Here we "go" again..................."If you have space you can
put whole supers in the freezer". SMILEY! FACE! SMILEY! FACE!...........

"Whole supers in the freezer". DON'T I WISH!!!! If your comb honey was removed from a VERY strong hive [which would usually be the case] there should not be a problem with wax moths. I have comb honey in plastic containers from last year and I see NO moths.

[Oldbee]

Freezing is GOOD though. No suddenly appearing "wax worms" in your comb honey.

[Tillie]

Recent post about cut comb and freezing:
http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=211748

Linda T in Atlanta

[Dan Williamson]

D. Williamson. Here we "go" again..................."If you have space you can
put whole supers in the freezer". SMILEY! FACE! SMILEY! FACE!...........

"Whole supers in the freezer". DON'T I WISH!!!! If your comb honey was removed from a VERY strong hive [which would usually be the case] there should not be a problem with wax moths. I have comb honey in plastic containers from last year and I see NO moths.

LOL....But I DO have whole supers in my freezer. Obviously its not the freezer above the refrigerator!

There very well may not be ANY moths in the comb honey. However, for the slight inconvience of putting the supers in the freezer overnight I'll take the extra step to avoid a potential problem later.

If you don't have freezer space for supers you can cut the comb place into square boxes or put the covers on the RR and put them in bags and put in the freezer until you need them.

When I put a whole super into the freezer I usually put it into a plastic bag first. Tiny pieces of broken burr comb all over the freezer isn't very charming to my wife.

[honeyman46408]

LOL....But I DO have whole supers in my freezer. Obviously its not the freezer above the refrigerator!

There very well may not be ANY moths in the comb honey. However, for the slight inconvience of putting the supers in the freezer overnight I'll take the extra step to avoid a potential problem later.

If you don't have freezer space for supers you can cut the comb place into square boxes or put the covers on the RR and put them in bags and put in the freezer until you need them.

When I put a whole super into the freezer I usually put it into a plastic bag first. Tiny pieces of broken burr comb all over the freezer isn't very charming to my wife.

HIS & HERS freezers :D

[Oldbee]

I put 6 boxes of my comb honey in the freezer for one month. It tasted just as good as the combs that had not been frozen: after thawing out!. I gave most of the comb honey to friends and relatives. The "friends" where ecstatic about the flavour of the honey; the "relatives"?. Well, that's a whole nother "thread".-'

[Bill W]

I Put 1 frame in the freezer last fall for a few days then used it for cut comb,
But now it has crystlized how can I get it back to liquid without melting the wax? :confused:

[honeyman46408]

you can warm it to NO more than 108 degrees (that is the way I was tought) BUT it will not look as good as it did.