comb honey production

[gojo]

Hi, I was planning on using a medium super for my comb honey production again this year, but I was wondering if I could reduce the amount of waste by switching to shallow supers. I wanted to use cutters from dadant that are 3-3/4" square, but I wasn't sure if a shallow supers would allow me to use the 4-1/8" square cutters.

[Oldbee]

Yes, the 4-1/8" square cutter works fine on the 5-3/8" frames that are used in shallow, 5-11/16" [Dadant] supers. The inside dimension of the shallow is 4-1/4". My cutter is closer to 4-1/16".

[Michael Palmer]

I use thin top bar shallow frames from Kelley...either split top bar or grooved top bar. Both have comb deep enough for the 4 1/8 cutter with 3/8 to spare. I found the wedge top bar shallow frames to be too small to use a punch...I use a copy of the old Kelley copper 4 way punch.

With the split top bar you need to make a jig for installing the foundation. With the grooved top bar you can glue the sheets in the groove with hot wax.

[Natalie]

Your question has been answered but just wanted to throw out that any "waste" that you have can be put into a liquid jar of honey as chunk honey.(actually the comb goes in first and then you pour the liquid honey in)
I would use every last piece of comb.

[Michael Bush]

To me the mediums are a better bet. I have more room to pick a perfect square out of and I can crush and strain the rest. There are more "seconds" with the shallows.

I have liked the split top shallows as they have a thin top bar, so there's a bit more comb to work with, and they are easy to put foundation in, back when I used foundation.