National Bell Jar Board

[Grub]

Happy Easter to all.

Always wanted to have a go as I have several people ask me in work do I sell comb honey , which I dont.

Any tips would be useful on how to use , ie do you pack the super out around the jars also when the best time as for me August September with HB in full flower is when I have my main flow.

Grub

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You've lost me now - what jars?

You can either sell comb honey as chunk honey (pieces of comb honey surrounded by extracted honey in a jar) or proper cut comb which is cut out of a frame and sold in a tray.

You need to put unwired thin foundation in the frame or go foundationless with a starter strip. The bees draw and cap it better when there is a good flow on - you can then either cut it out with a knife or purpose made comb cutter which gives you a piece which fits precicecly into a cut comb tray. Or stick a piece in a jar and fill the rest up with honey.

 

[Poly Hive]

There was a pic floating around on a FB group of a board which had some 12 I think holes in it, with open upside down jars. Next pic showed them getting filled.
The last pic was right side up and capped. Looked very neat but I suspect you would need a damn good colony and a good flow to pull it off. Heather posibly?

Might give it a try one day, and the jars were not normal honey ones but I think possibly 2 pounders.

PH

 

[alldigging]

http://pioneersettler.com/beekeeping-in-mason-jars/


There was someone on FB selling them I think and various people bought.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

http://pioneersettler.com/beekeeping-in-mason-jars/


There was someone on FB selling them I think and various people bought.

Probably got fed up of waiting for their flo hives

 

[BeeJayBee]

Try this youtube page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfCx4X36tY0

Put a bead of wax at the bottom of some jars then, during a good honey flow, upturn the jars over holes in a crown board and hope for the best. Once they've filled and capped the comb backfill the jars with run honey.

At first glance it seems easier than filling jars with chunk honey (comb plus run honey) but it's less reliable and can end up a complete mess. Worth trying though, if you've got the time.

 

[DerbyBee]

I had a go at cut comb honey last year with good success. The way I did it was to place every other frame in the super with foundation to stop them drawing comb horizontally. The blank frames that are to be used for cut comb I turned the little top bar the other way so it creates a lip for them to draw comb from. Also marked/wrote on the top bar of the frames for cut comb so I know which is which

 

[For want of a better word]

Brilliant reinvention of an old method.. definitely one for the Flowhivers.
Once the bees have filled and capped all the natural comb, the tap on the back of the Flows hive could be opened to fill the jars!

But it is another 4 days to go!!!

Yeghes da

 

[Grub]

all very useful , I have spare plywood worth a go.

 

[Ely]

Don't knock it till you try it. Each jar would be worth a fair bit to the right audience. They do look something special. They would make good gifts if marketed properly. I'd definitely give it a go.

 

[Grub]

Thanks Ely

I will make one up with 4 jars just to see how it goes

 

[Millet]

I bet the bees take a long time too evaporate the water content when using those jars, or do they.. ? ..how would you get a refractometer in there to find out.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

I bet the bees take a long time too evaporate the water content when using those jars, or do they.. ? ..how would you get a refractometer in there to find out.

Bees have been figuring out the moisture content of honey for a long time and generally cap it when it's ready to be capped. Let the bees decide.

CVB

 

[Millet]

Bees have been figuring out the moisture content of honey for a long time and generally cap it when it's ready to be capped. Let the bees decide.

CVB

Will it not take longer to remove the moisture in glass jars thus making the bees have to work longer instead of having to do something else more productive for the colony

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

looks a lot of faff regardless.
Think about it - do you plonk the jars on top of the super they're filling and hope they'll ignore all that lovely storage space and squeeze into a small area 'outside' the hive to make comb and store honey or do you give them no extra space apart from a handful of inverted jamjars and hope they don't swarm.

Far easier to just put a few frames of unwired foundation in the middle of a super if you just want a bit of cut comb to try.

 

[wessexmario]

If you're going to do it, then there's two basic ways to do it.

1) make the holes in the board big enough for the glass neck of the jar. This is simpler, but the bees may [will] propolise the exterior of the glass neck to the board. The jars are also not so secure (you'll need to move that box every inspection) and the ply holes may wear a little with use.

2) make holes in the centre of lids secured to the board. The cost is however many lids with holes in that you have permanently stuck to the board. The benefit is that the jars are more secure, screwed into the mounted lids, and when you unscrew them to harvest, the thread and the outside of the jar remain clean. The holes can be "closed" when the jar is removed by placing another jar with a plastic bag stretched over the neck, or a suitable sized disk just placed in the fixed lid.

 

[Poly Hive]

Hmm yes but that is merely the nuts and bolts ther real issue is will the bees/can the bees cope.

If you have read about "section bees" most of which are long long gone then there were strains of bees that could "Cope" with being closely crowded in the section crate and not swarm. That is the real issue here. I strongly suspect the probability of the whole scheme being rejected and the colony quitting is very high.

PH

 

[BeeJayBee]

I strongly suspect the probability of the whole scheme being rejected and the colony quitting is very high.

But as you've never tried this you won't know.

One way of making sure they fill the jars is to use Dave Cushman's trick for filling sections - and it does work, with sections and with jars! http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/easysections.html

 

[shazzer]

Jar Comb

Found this vid. Although I would have like to see a pic or vid of the bees in action and the end result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl9iGjP_Lu4

 

[Poly Hive]

I have not tried the jars no.

I however do have considerable experience of working for comb honey and circular sections so actually I do have some awareness of the pitfalls.

PH