cut comb questions?

[psafloyd]

Polyhive, Cant find the original post regarding your template, could you post the dimensions please. 10 sections from on frame seems quite an amount.

Many thanks as usual.

He's using Dadant, so bigger than the Nationals most of us use.

 

[Floyd]

Can you make cut comb if you have not used thin unwired foundation?

 

[REDWOOD]

Not really unless you cut between the wires and have triangular bits

 

[Black Comb]

Cutting tHe wire - difficult, then selling cut comb with wire in it is not advised

If the whole frame is not sealed then chop the unsealed comb into small pieces and add to a normal jar for sale as chunk honey.

 

[masterBK]

Freezing cutcomb has several benefits. As mentioned it kills Braula (which is slowly making a comeback in localised areas) and wax moth eggs / larvae but also prevents the honey from granulating enabling you to thaw out and sell the cutcomb weeks after harvesting.

The wax moth problem is a real one as a certain Yorkshire beekeeper found out a few years ago when he supplied some cutcomb to a well known top food store in London and a customer found a GWM larvae in one. A natural constituent and protein rich but not one most customers would like to find in their food.

 

[Poly Hive]

Floyd?

Take CC container and place upside down and draw round it.

Cut.

Then remove enough material so the template just fits in the container. Add handle. Sorted.

PH

 

[Gardenbees]

I tend to put foundationless frames on at least one super - the strongest colony usually as it uses up a lot of nectar - and let them make fresh comb with only a thin strip of foundation at the top to start them off. It makes beautiful cut comb, and seems to take the wind out of their sails a bit if they're piling in the nectar and thinking of swarming.

I use a really sharp chef's knife (8" Wusthof), not a cutter. I don't drain it, just chop it up and drop it quickly into the container (jar, in the case of chunk honey). I've never had to freeze it: it gets eaten up too quickly! (I gave a slice of comb to my neighbours and their kids had eaten it by the next day!). I would, however, think of freezing it if I was going to supply it to a shop or give it to someone who was likely to keep it for any length of time. I wouldn't like to risk a big, juicy wax moth grub in their products

It's generally thought of as a minority market, but I find that cut comb disappears the minute I produce it. Kids in particular seem fascinated by all the little hexagons full of honey, and hardly able to believe that it's all made by the bees. I had to show one of my neighbours' kids a half-drawn frame before she believed me! She was crazy about them, esp. after seeing the chains of bees all "holding hands"

 

[Tom Bick]

with Gardenbees the best cut comb is from natural comb and no sheets of foundation even the thin foundation.

 

[ratcatcher]

with Gardenbees the best cut comb is from natural comb and no sheets of foundation even the thin foundation.

even better if using top bar hives

 

[Poly Hive]

Esp after it's been laid up several times. Uh huh.

PH

 

[Tom Bick]

Esp after it's been laid up several times. Uh huh.

PH

Mmmm yes no one wants that although parts of the world it just may be desirable!!!!

Its only my first season with the TBH but I have combs and at the moment its hard to imaging the queen getting close to them but then things may change in the spring.

 

[ratcatcher]

Esp after it's been laid up several times. Uh huh.

PH

that's why I design and make my tbh different matey, you'll notice the movable excluder

http://youtu.be/oe0pCAdCWxo

 

[Poly Hive]

Thanks for letting us know.

It is reasonable to think a TBH is run minus an excluder.

PH

 

[ratcatcher]

most tbh users probably do use them the way they were designed, but after hiving my first swarm in a tbh nuc, which was queenless, I hit on the problem that everyone I knew used nationals, so transferring a frame of brood/eggs etc would be a problem, therefore plans were made up in my head for the square tbh that had an area to accept two national frames, and then also the idea of a queen excluder came to mind

my second swarm were an easy transfer from framed nuc to tbh

http://youtu.be/iz2UDxwydQg

 

[dclewis]

Reverting back to the wiring question, if you embed your own wire rather than use pre embedded foundation, then you can cut and pull the wire out, or at least I can from my Dandant frames.

 

[Poly Hive]

You can indeed pull the wire out of most foundation whehter hand wired or foundation wired but........

1. Risk of leaving bits of wire in.

2. Wrong thickness of foundation.

Both potentially giving the consumer a bad experience.

Given the price of CC compared to what extracted honey earns, then the cost of the foundation in my view is negligible and to not use it is frankly penny wise and pound foolish.

Remember you can sell pretty much anything to anyone ONCE, the trick is to repeat the deal.

PH

 

[burren]

Remember you can sell pretty much anything to anyone ONCE, the trick is to repeat the deal.

I like that, so,so true

 

[Polyanwood]

For cut comb I use manley frames and now put a thin strip ( 1-2 cm) foundation, stuck in with melted wax. I think that is better than the thin foundation.

 

[ratcatcher]

For cut comb I use manley frames and now put a thin strip ( 1-2 cm) foundation, stuck in with melted wax. I think that is better than the thin foundation.

SNAP

 

[dclewis]

I did better than that and just gave them a couple of empty frames. They pulled out beautiful straight and even comb but then proceeded to stock pollen in these frames earmarked for cut sections and so I reverted to using the best filled normal frames and extracted the wire. Lesson learned and I will only put them empty frames for cut comb in the second or higher supers next year.