Comb Honey

[Ben Little]

What type of Comb Honey is better to market ? I have been looking at Ross rounds and the Hogg cassette comb honey. Is it worth having those types of comb honey ? seems like just an added expense ? Bee-o-pack seems to be troublesome from what i hear in discussions.

I was going to just buy containers and some clean comb foundation and harvest that way , but i don't know what i should do .

Any thoughts ?

Ben

[fieldsofnaturalhoney]

If you want to cut the expense go with foundation less frames. Wedge top, use a small starter strip, which could be the side of the wedge. Wire the frame horizontal (with enough room to get a standard comb cutter between the wires, with four holes in the side bars, you have options), and presto. If you want to use the entire frame for cut comb honey, there is no need to wire the frame at all. I like to have a combination of comb, and extracted, so I wire the frames to do both. Plus it takes the bees less time to build new comb in only the sections I cut out, as opposed to the entire frame.

[cannon2000us]

I used foundationless frames last year and cut it with a knife and filled a pint jar with comb and honey

[Michael Bush]

When I do comb honey, I mostly do cut comb from foundationless frames... and some chunk comb. I have owned most of the cassette versions. Of those, I'd probably do the Ross Rounds. But they take more manipulation (all of the cassette kinds of methods) and they cost more for equipment.

[Ben Little]

I do like the Ross Rounds , but like you say they are a bit pricey. i didn't realize there was a certain way i had to manipulate the bees to get them to fill the RR's. is there a secret to it ?

Ben

[Ben Little]

Does anyone have a short video on how to Harvest the Ross Rounds ? i don't fully understand how the comb comes out without sticking to the plastic frame. I have never seen the system in real life , so it's hard for me to grasp the concept. I have looked on Youtube and there isn't much on there with the honey in the rounds.

Ben

[JRG13]

Ben, I think the set up is, you sell the honey still in the round, you don't need to remove it. I believe they come with a top and everything you just slap on it. You then just refill the super with new plastic rounds with the foundation added to rework.

[KPeacock]

there are a couple of videos out there online. I THINK i saw one featuring the infamous Fat Bee Man, but I've watched so dang many videos i nthe past month it's hard to recall. Anyways, they are essentially frames that have round hollow spaces built into them. Thr bees drawn and fill the comb with honey. You then remove the entire frame and two "case halves" that are presumably some sort of plastic are removed. This leaves you with some round (plastic or wax...unsure) discs filled with comb honey. You simply use a pocked knife to cut the excess away from the outside of the disc and you have one nice looking round of honey. This round of honey drops into a plastic case half, and then a palstic case half top goes over it. then a label is applied covering the seam of the two case halves with either your information, or some bee themed image, or whatever. If I can remember where i saw the video I'll post it.

[KPeacock]

here is one clip with an intro to the set-up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iawjr7Th3M

I couldn't find the other one showing how to package them in my broweser history. Hopefully this one helps clear it up a little bit.

[Michael Palmer]

Why don't you just make cut comb? Sell cuts in the standard 4 1/8" squares. Make one super of comb per each strong colony just as you would a new super for extracted. The bees do draw and fill supers of honey in NS, right. So if it doesn't have wires in it it's comb honey. And cut and drained properly and displayed well, it will sell better that Ross Rounds or any other section type. The deal is...it has to be pretty.

[Ben Little]

Yeah you're probably right Michael. I just get sucked in by products that look fancy to the public sometimes.
And yes the bees do tend to draw and fill honey supers in Nova Scotia : )

On another note, i tried your double nuc technique and it seems to work here in NS so far anyways , time shall tell when warmer weather gets here.

Ben

[jean-marc]

With RR you have to get the bees down into one box then super up with the rounds assuming you started with a double. Another way is to start them as a single then when theygather momentum you super up with RR. When you check on them later it will become evident that some hives are more apt to build Rounds.

If it looks fancy to the public, then the public probably fancies it and will pay good $ for it. I sold quite a few at some time in my beekeeping career. On the other hand cut comb is not to complex to make and harvest. No extra equipment, maybe a specal drip tray table of sorts and a pocket knife designated for the task. I am not convinced that this would outsell RR. However I have not tried selling cut comb in the past.

Jean-Marc

[PanchoBee]

I haven't tried cut comb or RR comb honey, But i used to sell frames of Comb honey and let the customer take as much they want and pay by weight, this of course was in Mexico...... Try a little of what your interested in and in the end which ever sells more, is more appealing, or quicker for the bees to fill would be your choice for the next season.

I usually have a deep, excluder and a regular honey super, once it's filled up say 50 to 70% I down super with 1" inch strip comb on shallow frame, only 9 frames in the super and the bees seem to fill it up in 2 to 3 weeks, capped honey. your nectar flows must be strong for comb honey to work and finish quickly, other wise if it the flow lags the bees will take their time to fill up the cells and to cap them that you may get stained caps, in other words it wont be the white clear cappings.

Good Luck with Comb Honey.

[ericweller]

I am a newbee that still doesn't have his bees, yet. I was interested in trying cut comb on one of my hives and got the cut comb foundation from Bushy Farms. It appears to be essentially waxed paper: http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com...oductinfo/308/.
Has anyone tried this stuff? Do I put it all into a single super or intermix it with standard foundation frames?

[Roland]

Aw c'mon , Mr Palmer, it's too easy to let the bees make cut comb on regular frames. The real challenge is basswood section comb honey.

Crazy Roland

[KPeacock]

I don't care for the basswood sections at all. they are messy to consume as the container has to be removed..and i thought it had a bit of a wood taste. could jsut be the pollen mix, but i tasted raw honey (extracted) from the same super and it didn;t have that taste. I sure won;t be setting my hives up for basswood sections.

[NasalSponge]

Even when making cut comb be sure to research it. Many folks will freeze the sections before sale so the costumer doesn't open his cupboard one day and find a box full of wax worms. 8)

[Michael Palmer]

Gosh Mr Roland, I have way too much to do in the rest of the apiary to fool around with excess colony management trying to convince my bees they want to work in sections of any kind.

[Adrian Quiney WI]

I'm going to mess around with the Ross Rounds this year. I couldn't quite picture how the box sections work, and so I've bought some Ross Rounds.
What appeals to me about both the above methods is not having to drip dry the honey sections. I have three little kids at home, and there is nowhere I would be able to put sections to drain without finding grubby little fingers in them.
I have a lot of people at work who have been asking for comb honey, and so if I get the hang of it I have no doubt it will sell.

[Michael Bush]

As far as a market, I haven't found that much more interest in one form than another. The people who remember comb honey are nostalgic about the comb and the honey, not so much the box. The people who have never seen comb honey need to be educated. If it's allowed where you live, selling sample 1" square cuts of comb honey for a quarter a piece will get people to taste it, and you will do ok on selling it that way (you get 16 out of a 4" square, but of course you could just cut them out of a frame full). You're getting only $4 a pound, but you often get a sale of some comb honey out of it. We need to educate people on our products.