Do you extract honey from frames that have been brooded in?

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Do you extract honey from brooded frames.


  • Total voters
    27
At the point of extraction the honey may come out of pure, virgin wax, but upto that point it could have been in almost any and several cells in the hive.
I realise that, and am sure the honey in the capped cell is ok. There might however be a risk of disturbing the pupal skin in the uncapping process. My gut feeling is it's not an issue (as most people seem to agree), I suspect if there is any faecal residue in the cell it will be sealed in care of the propolis "polishing" of the cell.
It would be interesting to see microscopy of a slice down through the middle of a cell.
 
There is a lot of interest in insect protein based food and locusts swarms being a major problem in some continents its got to the stage of product like burgers offered in shops.

Just look up the brood cycle of the fig wasp
Think twice about eating that fruit.....
Speaking of locust swarms I read recently the UK weather radar had picked up a huge swarm of flying ants 🐜 I wonder how they all know it's flying ant day and take to the wing almost simultaneously?
 
because the press and TV news bang on about it for days on end?
I just walk down the flagged path. Every flagstone seems to have one or two colonies underneath if you care to lift one up. On the appointed day the flyers emerge and comments are made. .😎 I suppose it keeps the ant powder sales up
 
The EU Council Directive 2001/110/EC of 20 December 2001 relating to honey, in Annex I, there is a list of honey types. Among them are (the emphasis is mine):

(iii) comb honey
Honey stored by bees in the cells of freshly built broodless combs or thin comb foundation sheets made solely of beeswax and sold in sealed whole combs or sections of such combs;
(iv) chunk honey or cut comb in honey
Honey which contains one or more pieces of comb honey;
(v) drained honey
Honey obtained by draining decapped broodless combs;
(vi) extracted honey
Honey obtained by centrifuging decapped broodless combs;
(vii) pressed honey
Honey obtained by pressing broodless combs with or without the application of moderate heat not exceeding 45 °C;

I have been told before that this means comb that has never been used for brood, but it's not formally defined in the regulation so I've sent off an email to our local Dept. of Agriculture to see if they can provide an answer.

Personally, I never use comb that has held brood for extraction, perhaps because I'm a bit fussy and would be concerned about contaminants. However, I'll happily feed it to the bees, and I have no doubt that much of it ends up in the pristine supers.

I don't know if this particular piece regulation has been incorporated into post-Brexit requirements in the UK, but I imagine there's something similar.
 
I have been told before that this means comb that has never been used for brood,
well you were told a load of bullshine I'm afraid - which sums up most of this discussion.
 
The EU Council Directive 2001/110/EC of 20 December 2001 relating to honey, in Annex I, there is a list of honey types. Among them are (the emphasis is mine):

(iii) comb honey
Honey stored by bees in the cells of freshly built broodless combs or thin comb foundation sheets made solely of beeswax and sold in sealed whole combs or sections of such combs;
(iv) chunk honey or cut comb in honey
Honey which contains one or more pieces of comb honey;
(v) drained honey
Honey obtained by draining decapped broodless combs;
(vi) extracted honey
Honey obtained by centrifuging decapped broodless combs;
(vii) pressed honey
Honey obtained by pressing broodless combs with or without the application of moderate heat not exceeding 45 °C;

I have been told before that this means comb that has never been used for brood, but it's not formally defined in the regulation so I've sent off an email to our local Dept. of Agriculture to see if they can provide an answer.

Personally, I never use comb that has held brood for extraction, perhaps because I'm a bit fussy and would be concerned about contaminants. However, I'll happily feed it to the bees, and I have no doubt that much of it ends up in the pristine supers.

I don't know if this particular piece regulation has been incorporated into post-Brexit requirements in the UK, but I imagine there's something similar.
Its states Honey is to be obtained from broodless combs!!!!!!!!!!…………..it does not say you can’t use combs that have ever contained brood!

Even comb honey says broodless combs and rather significantly by its absence any reference to comb that has contained brood previously.

Any suggestions that extracting honey from comb that in the past contained brood is illegal is just utterly wrong.

Brood less as quoted means no eggs/larvae/pupae!
 
I work on the principle that anything in the brood box below the queen excluder belongs to the bees, anything else is fair game. There's no way to guarantee that honey has never been kept in an ex brood comb regardless of where it is extracted from so on that principle I would have no problem with it being added to the harvest though.
 
Its states Honey is to be obtained from broodless combs!!!!!!!!!!…………..it does not say you can’t use combs that have ever contained brood!

Even comb honey says broodless combs and rather significantly by its absence any reference to comb that has contained brood previously.

Any suggestions that extracting honey from comb that in the past contained brood is illegal is just utterly wrong.

Brood less as quoted means no eggs/larvae/pupae!
:iagree:
Brooded - comb that has held brood at some point
Broodless - comb that contains no brood at the moment
Both fine for extraction
 

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