Anyone produce Comb Honey?

[Bakersdozen]

Is anyone considering producing comb honey?  Do you have a market for it?  Riverbee, I know you make comb honey.  Anyone else?

[tedh]

We produce a small amount.  We love it but just haven't the market for it.  We've been "sharing" small amounts hoping to generate interest without much luck.  It seems as though very few people know about it.  I think my family's interest is nostalgia born.  Ted

[riverbee]

it is hit and miss for me, comb honey, even chunk honey. sometimes i think the northerners don't know what to do with comb honey........
i have a flyer i hand out on the roadside sales on what to do with comb honey......

i didn't produce any last year, actually it would have been a good year but decided not to. i have a number of packages still in the freezer.

i think jack (brooksbeefarm) sells comb honey, not sure how well he does, he probably has a better market for it. maybe he will chime in here.

[Perry]

I did a few frames a couple of years ago. It is a money maker at $30 a kilo.
I will try to do some this year, and chunk honey as well as that sold well too.

[riverbee]

i sent jack (brooksbeefarm) a pm, for him to chime in on this thread.

i don't use any special equipment for comb honey, just blank super frames placed in a honey super. this takes a really good nectar flow and a lot of bees!

ted and perry what are you using to produce comb honey?

[tedh]

I also use blank (no foundation) medium frames but I staple a wooden "starter strip" in the top groove that hangs down maybe a quarter inch.  I initially rubbed the starter strip with wax to let the girls know what I wanted .  Ted

[Bakersdozen]

Several years ago I bought some Ross Rounds and have yet to use them.  I have had requests for comb honey.  It seems mostly from people who remember it from the childhood and can't find it any more.  Perhaps compiling a comb honey contact list with email or phone #s would be good to establish to that you can notify customers when you have it available?
I have a swarm I caught a couple of days ago that I think would be a good candidate for comb honey.  Swarms are wax producing machines.  I think I will experiment on them for comb honey.

[omnimirage]

I do comb honey. I was given some hives when I started out, and a number of them didn't have any foundation in them. Through trail and error I learned that the bees quite consistently build straight comb on frames without foundation, as long as the frames that are immediately adjacent to them do have foundation.

I've simply been cutting it out with a hive knife, putting it directly into a take away container. It attracts a lot of attention at markets, though that attention more often then not doesn't turn into a sale. I've been selling it for more than double the price of liquid honey. I've been using cheap takeaway containers, it doesn't look impressive in all honesty. I've been considering buying these containers instead:

http://mecoplastics.com.au/products.html

H250 in particular, but it costs over triple the amount of the takeaway containers and I'm not sure if it's worthwhile.

An alternative approach that very well may be better, is to use something like this:

http://www.kelvintrading.com.au/gallery/Beekeeping/comb-honey-box/245096?view=grid&order=date_added

Basically, placing the containers inside the hive for the bees to fill, rather than cutting the comb out of the hive to place inside a container. I've seen a number of varying methods of going about doing this, including people building their own containers out of cheap wood.

Another thing that's quite popular is to simply cut a square of honeycomb and place it in a jar, surrounded by liquid honey. The comb floats to the top, and looks pretty grand; it's very popular.

[riverbee]

omni, yes, the bees will build straight comb on foundation-less frames for comb honey if the frames are between drawn frames. i place mine off center.
i use containers made by nods apiary of ontario, canada; these are the only containers that fit what i cut off from the frames.
i would use a good looking container instead of the 'takeaway', that's just me

this is how i do comb honey, thread here with video and instructions:

Cut Comb Honey Production

if i have any 'leftover' comb or sections i am not happy with, i will put these in jars and fill with honey.