Best method for small amount of comb honey

[simonforeman]

Now into my 3rd year of beekeeping I would like to try and get some nice comb honey. I suppose easiest way would be to put some unwired foundation into a super when theres a flow on.

But how do others with more experience do it and any little tricks that would help us newbies

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Put some unwired foundation in a super when there's a flow on

Try and avoid putting it in the super immediately above the brood though, you tend to get a lot more pollen in it that way.

 

[george]

As jbm describes it . Go with ultra thin wireless and in supers 2 and above , don’t leave it in any longer then you need to and if its capped take it out . It looks a lot better if you havnt got weeks worth of bees walking all over it and colouring the cappings .

 

[Ian123]

Maybe best to stick to the main summer flow as probably they are more likely to cap more cells and honey is less likely to come from sources prone to early granulation. Very much depends on your area though.

 

[Poly Hive]

Buy a couple of Manley frames and put them between your Hoffman frames in the 2nd super or above.

I used to do this on the heather, every super above the first was half Hoff and half Man and it worked very well.

PH

 

[citrus]

Put some unwired foundation in a super when there's a flow on

Try and avoid putting it in the super immediately above the brood though, you tend to get a lot more pollen in it that way.

qq what is the problem with pollen in the cut comb ... must admit I got a lot of cut comb last season (still in the freezer) using foundationless frames (lolly sticks) and didnt really consider this pollem point

 

[Erichalfbee]

qq what is the problem with pollen in the cut comb ... must admit I got a lot of cut comb last season (still in the freezer) using foundationless frames (lolly sticks) and didnt really consider this pollem point

Some of my customers ask for pollen in their cut comb so I do keep some back but it doesn’t look very nice.

 

[tonyofarr]

When making up the cut comb frames place the ultra thin foundation in the frame and pour a bead of melted beeswax along the frame and then nail on the frame wedge, this makes the frame more stable..........many years ago we had 3 supers of partially drawn cut comb collapse in extremely hot weather while the bees were working it and you would not believe the mess.

There is an art to getting the timing right with cut comb, we put it on at the height of the flow, usually in 4th/5th place to avoid the pollen issue. You need to get the super drawn, filled and capped quickly and if you put it on too late it won't get capped. It helps if you know your local honey flow, usually by the 3rd week in July our flow is coming to an end, and by August that's it. When we had that really hot weather a couple of years ago the honey flow stopped halfway through July like a tap had been turned off. When we have had rain pretty much the whole season we were lucky to get any honey at all and there was no point even putting on a cut comb super.

It helps to know your bees; we have had a few colonies that draw foundation really badly or others that put pollen everywhere and (after a neighbour experimented with some imported queens) we had a few colonies that coated EVERYTHING with propolis.

As with everything to do with bees, give it a go and I hope you have fantastic weather and a great season.

 

[Beefriendly]

A simple answer is only use thin unwired foundation in all your super frames whatever type they may be. Then you can take any good looking sealed frame and cut comb sections from it.
I've done this for many years now. There are no problems uncapping and centrifuging as per normal extraction for liquid honey.
An added bonus is that thin unwired is the cheapest foundation you can buy, so it's win win win.

 

[Ian123]

A simple answer is only use thin unwired foundation in all your super frames whatever type they may be. Then you can take any good looking sealed frame and cut comb sections from it.
I've done this for many years now. There are no problems uncapping and centrifuging as per normal extraction for liquid honey.
An added bonus is that thin unwired is the cheapest foundation you can buy, so it's win win win.

As above all I use is unwired, if you want to avoid large patches of pollen then simply hold up to light in extraction room.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Last year I tried starter strips of foundation about 30mm wide. I pulled the wire out of the foundation I had and cut 3? strips out of each.

I was removing drawn and sealed frames by the beginning of June. Cut comb to fit the Thornes plastic boxes out of the lower part of the frame. The rest was crushed up and filtered. Not sure how 'tough' it should be to eat. There is a slight crunch to the naturally drawn comb. Not that keen on it myself. Probably mostly OSR.

Fully drawn unwired frames tend to burst in my hand tangential extractor. Maybe I'm too impatient.

. . . . . Ben