Is cut comb worth the effort

[Rob55]

Obviously with cut comb, all drawn foundation is lost and the bees have to start from scratch each time the comb is cut out. Just canvassing for opinions on whether many people still bother with cut comb based on this? The weather this year (and last) has been awful and the bees are already on the back foot, so I wonder whether I should abandon my cut comb ideas and extract it if I am lucky enough to have a honey crop, so that I have drawn frames to be used again next year.

Opinions?

PS - all my frames are manleys with wireless foundation.

 

[fiftyjon]

Obviously with cut comb, all drawn foundation is lost and the bees have to start from scratch each time the comb is cut out. Just canvassing for opinions on whether many people still bother with cut comb based on this? The weather this year (and last) has been awful and the bees are already on the back foot, so I wonder whether I should abandon my cut comb ideas and extract it if I am lucky enough to have a honey crop, so that I have drawn frames to be used again next year.

Opinions?

PS - all my frames are manleys with wireless foundation.

Yes, you can't beat it, IMHO !



Put just one or two frames in amongst drawn frames.

 

[Black Comb]

Cut comb is a lot "easier" than extracting. Quicker and less mess. You in effect are selling wax for the price of honey!
However, I find there is a limited market for it.
Heather honey is good for this as it is thixotropic.

 

[itma]

Extracting Manleys with unwired foundation needs care, and is easier with a radial extractor.
(With Manleys, the comb isn't supported by the extractor 'screens' ...)

You will make life easier for yourself NEXT year if you can produce some drawn supers for re-use.
I'd suggest that you get some wired foundation and get that into play asap.
No harm mixing wired and unwired in the same box - just as long as they are clearly marked so that you know (rather than think you remember) which is which ...

Lots of people (customers) want cut-comb. But not so many with granulated OSR honey in it ...
Interesting (if slightly extreme) idea in a recent BBKA News, suggesting getting cut-comb frames drawn on OSR, and then promptly extracted, before those drawn combs were reused in late season for being refilled with heather honey - itself a premium and awkward to extract product.
/but I have no heather within a sensible distance!

 

[Rob55]

I do have relatively easy access to heather and will be taking my hives there in September, pretty sure it is all standard ling heather not the bell type. Is ling still as desirable?

I will get some standard frames and wired foundation ordered and then it will be easy to tell which is which, manleys for unwired and standard for wired. Is it ok to mix and match these two types of frames or should I keep them in separate supers?

 

[enrico]

Try using the cut comb designed frames, hard to get the bees to draw it out but when they do, peel the sides away, put it in a box and the profit is huge!
E

 

[Rob55]

Do you mean sections, enrico?

 

[fiftyjon]

manleys for unwired and standard for wired. Is it ok to mix and match these two types of frames or should I keep them in separate supers?

You can, the bees won't care one bit however you will need to space the frames correctly. I would buy Manley frames for wired and then put them both in the same super boxes, the frames will be correctly spaced.

 

[Tim1606]

I will get some standard frames and wired foundation ordered and then it will be easy to tell which is which, manleys for unwired and standard for wired. Is it ok to mix and match these two types of frames or should I keep them in separate supers?

Why mix the type of frames?
We use manleys for all our supers and mark CC on cut comb frames. Sometimes it is easy to take those frames out when capped and just replace it with fresh when doing a check. Simple.

 

[Dishmop]

I've often thought that cut comb does seem a bit complicated.
Probably wrong but wouldnt it be easier to cut it from an ordinary frame with something like a pastry cutter. Ginger bread men shaped cut comb?
You could cut one or two from each frame and extract the rest of the frame. Bees will soon fill the gaps with new comb.

I await to be sentenced to be shot at dawn for my crime for making such a suggestion.

 

[Rob55]

Thanks for all the advice, from a bit of further reading it would appear manleys may be the best frame type to stick to and I'll just mark them wired/unwired.

FWIW, my hive swarmed a week ago, they have about 8 fully drawn frames and 3 new ones in the brood box and I stuck a super on top, figured may as well give them plenty of space. Any idea how long it will take them to get started on drawing out the super? There's a nectar flow on at the mo with hawthorne, sycamore, chestnut and holly all in bloom, but obviously my bees are well down on numbers. I had a quick peek yesterday, they have the whole super propolised and seem to be building plenty of brace comb between the super and the brood box, but haven't started to draw the super yet.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I do have relatively easy access to heather and will be taking my hives there in September, pretty sure it is all standard ling heather not the bell type. Is ling still as desirable?

Honey from the ling is very desirable. Taking your bees to the heather in September is late, ling starts to flower here from mid July, although still in flower in September the bees rarely get much from it after August.

 

[Rob55]

Honey from the ling is very desirable. Taking your bees to the heather in September is late, ling starts to flower here from mid July, although still in flower in September the bees rarely get much from it after August.

Hmm maybe I have gotten it the wrong way around, the heather we have blooms late August all through September and finishes start of october, perhaps this is bell and not ling.

 

[davnig]

I've often thought that cut comb does seem a bit complicated.
Probably wrong but wouldnt it be easier to cut it from an ordinary frame with something like a pastry cutter. Ginger bread men shaped cut comb?
You could cut one or two from each frame and extract the rest of the frame. Bees will soon fill the gaps with new comb.

I await to be sentenced to be shot at dawn for my crime for making such a suggestion.

It's very easy - knife around inside of frame - complete comb falls out - cut to shape for container with same knife - drain - containers - odd bits left use for chunk honey.

I'd say a lot quicker and easier than funny shaoes and extracting a gappy comb. Try a couple of frames - starter strip on std frame between drawn frames so they draw it straight

 

[Into the lions den]

Hmm maybe I have gotten it the wrong way around, the heather we have blooms late August all through September and finishes start of october, perhaps this is bell and not ling.

Bell flowers earlier than Ling, not later, sometimes starting to yield as early as the start of July, though roadside patches can flower even earlier than that. The two often overlap considerably.

Yields from Ling in the UK after the first few days of September are rare, even if there is still enough flower. maybe in the extreme south you might go on later. Over the last 20 years the old adage 'If you are up for the grouse shooting, 12th Aug, you are up in time.' would have meant you had missed the best of it in half of the seasons. Try to be on the moors for the end of July for the Ling, but always have a look to see if the flowering is imminent. Long periods on the moors with nothing to get makes the colonies go backwards sharply.

You can often get a second flowering of the Bell later on in the season, Sept, even Oct. Never known this second flowering to yield anything.

 

[Rob55]

Well I am no expert but in our area last year there was nothing worth talking about until the end of Aug and then there was a purple explosion for the whole of September, a friend of mine filled a super despite the weather being wet and rainy for almost the whole month.

I do know a more experience beekeeper who regularly takes his bees to the heather, will talk it over with him and see when he recommends to move the hives.

 

[Mike a]

Last year I moved a few hives to the heather in the 3rd week of July, several beekeepers told me that was too early and they always took theirs 2-3 weeks later. May be last year was an acceptation to the rule weather wise but in those 3 weeks the very strong colony I took almost filled and started to cap the frames in the upper deep brood chamber.

This year as everything seems to be running about 4-6 weeks behind I'm still going to take a chance and drive out to the forest in early July to the same site I used last year and gauge when to take my colonies from there.

Sorry the picture is a little blurred but the heather honey collected in July was good enough to win me a first place in my associations honey show last year against strong competition. The judge said it was the best he'd tasted for some years.