Cut Comb Honey Slide Show

[tillie]

Today I made cut comb honey.  I have no idea if I did it right but I made a slide show of the process:

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2007/07/cutting-and-boxing-cut-comb-honey.html

It was by far the messiest event that has ever taken place in my kitchen.  I did have fun and the boxes are nice.  I ended up with some chunk honey as well since all of my comb wasn't beautiful enough to put in the boxes.  I learned a lot. 

If you look at the slide show and have suggestions about how to do it better, I'd really love to hear about it.

Linda T quite sticky in Atlanta

[SystemShark]

I really dig all the videos and pics that you post. Makes me even more excited to get started. The cutcomb seems really "old world" - I wonder about those moths though.even if you freeze to kill them when you use the cutcomb wouldn't you still get their bodies in there? I guess there would be no way to really purify that type of honey. Thanks for the slide show!

[buzzbee]

The moths aren't actually in there. It would be the eggs the moth laid.Freezing kills any eggs that may be present. They are harmless and you probably could not find them.A strong hive probably wouldn't have any problems with moths anyhow,freezing is done as a precaution.

[tillie]

The only time I've had a wax moth problem is when I've left a totally empty hive with drawn comb out to lure swarms.  The wax moths show up and thrive because the bees aren't there to keep their house clean. 

I have no reason to think that there would be wax moth eggs, even, in my honey, but I sure don't want a friend to be revolted by opening a jar and finding worms in it ;)

I think we say "pure honey" meaning that it is straight from the beehive, with nothing added to it by humans. So really, I freeze the cut comb and the chunk honey, like buzzbee said, as a precaution.

Linda T in Atlanta

[super dave]

so cool --that gives me ideas

[danno1800]

Outstanding job! Thanks for making this & posting it for all of us. -Danno

[asprince]

Clever use of a queen excluder. Looks new..........not covered with wax.

[tillie]

I've never used the queen excluder except for once in my two years of beekeeping.  The one time I did use it was for one week to determine if one of my hives actually had two queens (which it did, as it turned out). 

I was thrilled to find a good use for the queen excluder (other than donating it to the auction at my bee club).  I was afraid to let the squares drain on wire baking cooling racks for fear that they would make a mark in the comb.  The queen excluder with its 1/4 inch spaces works physically to distribute the pressure, thus no mark on the comb.  Michael Bush puts his on screen mesh over a cafeteria tray to drain, but I didn't have either the mesh or the tray, so went with the queen excluder and cookie sheets.

Linda T in Atlanta

[abates99]

I would like to once again say well done.  I have enjoyed your harvest posts, they have been helpful to me because this is my first season and I hope to be able to harvest honey soon.  Thanks again.

[lakeman]

Why drain the comb, why not let what drains out go with the comb in the package you sell or give away?

[tillie]

Gosh, lakeman, I am honored that you are re-vamping such an old post of mine.

IMHO, if you are packaging honey whether to sell or give away, it should be done as well as possible.  If people want liquid honey with their comb, then they buy a bottle of liquid honey with a chunk of honeycomb in the middle (chunk honey).  When people buy comb honey, that's what they want - the honeycomb filled with honey.

I have discovered that even if I drain the cut comb before boxing it and then put the boxes in the freezer, when thawing a little honey still drains out of the cut comb.  Since honey show standards are that there is no liquid honey in a cut comb box, I now put the cut combs on the queen excluder and freeze them on the drain board over a cookie sheet.  Then I remove them and thaw them still on the drain board.  I then put the totally dry cut comb into the box.

The standards for honey shows are to help us as beekeepers learn how to present a professional product.  A cut comb in a box is supposed to be without liquid, so that's what I aim for when I produce that type of honey.

Linda T in Atlanta  :)

[annette]

Well that answered a question I never got around to asking you. When I first started to learn about beekeeping, my first mentor cut out a nice square of comb honey and placed it directly in the container. Then he froze it for a couple of days. This is how he sold it to health food stores.

I always wondered why you drained it, but show standards are different I understand now.

Thanks
Annette

[Shawn]

Thats was way too cool. It makes me jealous each time I see photos of comb. I tried to do the foundationless but had a terrible time with it. I think Ill try to do it again so maybe some day get cut comb like yours.

[tillie]

Robert Brewer who is a Welsh honey judge and teaches people to be honey judges in Georgia said in a workshop that the honey standards for a show are designed to train beekeepers in general to put up a well-packaged product.  It can look as if people entering shows and being judged are being judged on ridiculously specific standards - which seems unreasonable until you think of it as Robert put it.

So if you get a blue ribbon in a honey show, that means that your product - in this case your cut comb honey - has been harvested and packaged in an impeccably professional way - the way anyone selling or handing that product out should aspire to as well.  It's a model for good honey production.

So oldest child that I am, I always strive to do everything I do the best I can possibly do it - so I will not be packaging my cut comb in a sloppy way, but rather with no honey in the box with the cut comb.  And I only give away my honey.

Linda T in Atlanta