Cut Comb Honey Success?
I decided to stop producing liquid honey a couple of years ago as I was not enjoying the extraction process. It was time-consuming, blooming messy and I had to recruit my parents to help (meaning as well as spending hours scraping honey off the extractor, lifting surprisingly heavy boxes and labelling far too many jars, I also had to be polite and make small talk throughout!).
Last year I was seduced by the idea of sections. Easy, efficient, and no need to exploit the kindness of others in order to harvest the honey.
I tried Ross Rounds but based on my experience and further research (thanks to BBKA forum) discovered that, due to our short beekeeping season in the UK, the bees do not have enough time and are not that keen on sections. Fussy blighters.
I then decided to pursue cut comb which is meant to be the easiest way to make comb honey in the UK. I was also rather keen on producing that gorgeous honeycomb that I love so much (and retails for so much more than a jar of honey if packaged in a quaint box with string round it).
And so my dreams began…
I was hoping for 200 cartons of cut comb with minimum effort. I caught all my swarms and combined them into stronger colonies. I made some artificial swarms in early May that were largely successful. The hives all had at least 1 super all with thin foundation … 10 supers in total.
And today was the day of truth.
The Reckoning
27 cartons of cut comb honey (plus 4 dodgy cartons for my porridge). The taste is the same as previous years: highly scented and aromatic with a floral flavour – thanks to all the flowers which surround the apiary, in the allotment, gardens, hedges, woods and fields. I am delighted with my haul.
And all this from about 6 frames of honey. Imagine if all 100 frames had delivered! I will continue to pursue cut comb next year.
How has everyone else done this year?
Video Of Me Cutting Honey Comb
What Is Success When It Comes To A Honey Crop?
Is it quality and taste? Is it quantity?
For me – a novice – as you can probably tell from the video above, I’m very happy and excited with my 27 cartons. 27 is enough to show it off, enjoy with friends and give away some as a gifts. But I would have been over the moon if I had made 100 cartons. 100 cartons would mean a surplus. I could set up a shop at the bottom of the garden for the day. Perhaps next year …
First Indications
As I peered into the first super I was delighted to see the 4 frames below.
Frame Of Capped Honey – Beautiful
Cutting Comb
Cut Comb In Carton
Read More
Share this:
Where do you get the cartons from? Problems in NW of UK– people have never heard of cut comb honey and are reluctant to try it. How do you get hem interested?
Maisemore.
I see some cut comb for sale around here but a lot of people are dubious about the wax. The more we produce and write about cut comb the more people will want it. It’s the best!
Try including a card or information board that tells people how to eat honey comb.
Hi
My method of producing cut comb is to put frames with thin -unwired foundation-in between drawn comb(frames numbers 3,5,7,9) in a normal super
starting with the second box, this avoids pollen in the comb which doesn’t taste very nice- and take them out as soon as they are capped
to harvest, I cut the whole wax out of the frame on a chopping board and then divide into 8 equal pieces- no waste as you get with a comb cutter