Heather& balsam= cut comb??

[Pips]

Am intending to harvest our first harvest of honey in next few days if I can get hold of an extractor. Once done am hoping to make some cut comb honey. We have a nature reserve of heather about quarter if mile from the house that is just coming out into full bloom. But... Also have a lot of balsam about 2 miles away, and some in the garden to give the girls a quick snack on the way home! Also in a town so lots of garden flowers still in bloom. Will the balsam, garden flowers and maybe ivy mean that the honey won't be solid enough to make this kind of honey?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I've just finished a super of cut comb and my honey is largely bramble and clover. It's capped anyway so it doesn't really matter what sort it is.
I would avoid ivy though....yuk!

Are you hoping they will fill and cap returned extracted frames?

 

[itma]

... Will the balsam, garden flowers and maybe ivy mean that the honey won't be solid enough to make this kind of honey?

Idea isn't that the honey is solid.

You need to be using unwired foundation, to be able to cut through it neatly (let alone eat it!)

Heather honey is more of a gel. Its hard to extract, so cut comb is a practical means of selling it.

Ivy honey tastes … a bit different (but some people like it). It sets in a grainy, not very good way. Most beekeepers think it is ideal for building the bees winter stores. (There are a few foolish enough not to understand that the bees are perfectly happy with it.)



My suggestion is that you shouldn't be too greedy, maximising your harvest in your first year. After harvest, treat for varroa. Then help the bees lay down 40lb of stored honey in each hive. After you've got a better idea of how the season's work for the bees (next year), by all means try and get some different crops, get some thin, unwired foundation, and try for some cut comb. But for your first Autumn, concentrate on preparing for Winter.

 

[Swarm]

Certainly not, though I would hope they capped it before an Ivy flow. My cut comb was mainly Hawthorn (great flow this year) not as thick as Heather, but spread on something warm like toast, honey is honey.

 

[Pips]

Ah, ok. Thanks, knew about unwired but thought it had to be heather. The bees have almost a whole super of honey to themselves for winter as well as their stores in the brood box. They are brood and a half but most of the'half' is honey stores. I am taking the honey in the super above this, I understood this would be enough.

 

[Swarm]

I was looking at cut comb for sale yesterday. It was Acacia from Hungary and priced at £9 per half pound.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes, I think we should be charging £1.00 per oz.
It's labour intensive for bees and keeper.

 

[enrico]

I don't bother with cut comb, I chunk it in smaller bits, having used unwired thin foundation, one in each super, and then add it to my lime honey. It sells for £2 extra, £6.50.
Looks beautiful in lime honey and tastes sublime on toast!

 

[enrico]

Hopefully attached a photo!
Oh poo..... It was upside down.....sorry!
E

 

[REDWOOD]

I was looking at cut comb for sale yesterday. It was Acacia from Hungary and priced at £9 per half pound.

It won't be long Swarm ours will be up there with man puka honey

 

[REDWOOD]

Hopefully attached a photo!
Oh poo..... It was upside down.....sorry!
E

Australian honey

 

[REDWOOD]

There we go Enrico

 

[ratcatcher]

I was looking at cut comb for sale yesterday. It was Acacia from Hungary and priced at £9 per half pound.

mines only £6

 

[enrico]

There we go Enrico

Ok.....how did you that? It's magic!
Thanks
E

 

[Swarm]

Great place this.
Enrico .... Very classy. Better displayed as per REDWOOD though
Ratcatcher .... Looking good, maybe you should consider £8? That amber stuff looks much nicer than Hungarian Acacia.
REDWOOD .... You swore again My wife is on the case, she reckons they could 'out ours' for a tenner at least ...it's flippin local.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ratcatcher,
It looks like you use one of those comb cutters. How do you stop it annihilating the edges?

My offcuts go in jars too

 

[ratcatcher]

Ratcatcher,
It looks like you use one of those comb cutters. How do you stop it annihilating the edges?

My offcuts go in jars too

I have a pan of near boiling water to the side that the cutter sits it, I place the frame into a gardening tray (£4.99 from QD's)



then press through comb but don't try lifting out, do all 4 or 5 cuts (depending on frame) then lift off the frame, leaving the cut comb on the tray, then use a cooking spatula to lift comb into box, put on scales, if less than 227g just top up with honey that's in the tray, any biggish bits of comb left on frame gets cut to fit in jars, the rest goes into a crush and strain bucket

http://youtu.be/U8m7gOSRWIY

 

[ratcatcher]

Ratcatcher,


My offcuts go in jars too

I like the lids on those jars, where from?

what do you sell an 8oz for?
I've been selling at £3.50 plain honey
£4.50 chunk honey
to cheap, to dear???

 

[victor meldrew]

Market forces . Up the price , if sales slow rapidly, reduce . Not this year if already priced . People are funny , and could view as a price hike .
Start with the price you think will sell , a reduction if not ,is usually welcomed.
VM


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Erichalfbee]

I like the lids on those jars, where from?

what do you sell an 8oz for?
I've been selling at £3.50 plain honey
£4.50 chunk honey
to cheap, to dear???

Lids and jars C Wynne Jones, I sell my honey in 12oz jars for £4.50, chunk in 8oz for the same price, cut comb £6.00 but I'm pricing it by weight this year as some boxes come up nearly 10oz