Storing honeycomb for sale

[omnimirage]

I put some honeycomb in about 30 take away dishes and they've been sitting in my shed for the last two months. Some moths and other insects got in about 10 of them, they've spun webs and pooped in their, ruining the product. I didn't realise they could crawl up into the container.

Since then I've collected another 20 honeycombs. I have way more than I know how to sell. How can I store them so they'd be safe from bugs?

I have thought about opening the lid, and putting some plastic food wrap (called gladwrap here) on top to sort of seal it off, then place the lid on top of that, then store them in two garbage bags inside the house. I'm just not sure how effective that'd be. I really don't know how I'm going to sell them I possibly will be holding onto these for over a year, I don't have much outlets to sell honey currently and when I do go and sell some, not many people tend to buy honeycomb. I've wondered about freezing them but I have limited freezer space and I'm not sure how they'd unfreeze.

Any suggestions?

[tjc1]

If you don't sell much comb honey, why not extract it and put it in some of those jars you bought? :)  Seriously, it will keep much better that way, and no worries about bugs.

[little john]

I often keep a handful of partially-filled combs (both honey and pollen) in the freezer over winter, which I de-frost to room temperature for 24hrs before donating them in the spring - never had a problem doing this.

Sounds as if you've produced something the market doesn't want - or isn't ready for just yet.  Comb honey is a bit of a niche market, as people have become conditioned to buying jars of thick amber liquid.  Sections and cut-comb used to be all the rage at one time.

Suggest you 'get out there' with a few samples of your existing stock, and talk to 'whole-food' shops, health-food shops, delicatessens - indeed, anywhere other than bog-standard food shops or supermarkets.  If you find some takers - you're sorted.  If not, accept the reality of the situation and do as tcj1 suggests - reduce those combs to honey and jar it for sale 'as and when'.

One idea I've seen is to place some comb honey into a jar, then top it up with extracted honey as a 'novelty presentation'.  Doing this does create something of a 'farm-produced' product - as opposed to factory mass-produced - but whether this would sell in your location, couldn't say.  So much depends on local customers - around here people are strapped for cash, so supermarket Chinese honey wins every time.
LJ

[iddee]

The moth eggs were likely in it when you harvested it.   I would suggest sealing it first, then freezing it for 3 or more days, then storing it in the kitchen or other clean climate controlled area. If it doesn't granulate, it should be fine for an extended period.

[Acebird]

How can I store them so they'd be safe from bugs?

If you don't have a winter cold season then leave them on the hive until you do need them.