Comb honey is

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

intended for consumption by humans, which is still contained within its original hexagonal-shaped

beeswax Bee hive wax complex Beeswax (also known as cera alba) is a natural wax produced by honey bees of the genus ''Apis''. The wax is formed into scales by eight wax-producing glands in the abdominal segments of worker bees, which discard it in o ...

cells, called

honeycomb A honeycomb is a mass of Triangular prismatic honeycomb#Hexagonal prismatic honeycomb, hexagonal prismatic cells built from beeswax by honey bees in their beehive, nests to contain their brood (eggs, larvae, and pupae) and stores of honey and pol ...

. It has received no processing, filtering, or manipulation, and is in the state that

honey bees A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the ...

have produced it. Before the invention of the honey extractor almost all honey produced was in the form of comb honey. Today, most honey is produced for extraction but comb honey remains popular among consumers both for eating 'as is' and for combining with extracted honey to make chunk honey. Hobbyists and sideliners can develop their beekeeping skills by producing comb honey, which takes more rigorous attention to beekeeping than the production of extracted honey.''Honey in the Comb'' by Eugene Killion, 1981, Dadant & Sons Because of the more demanding labor involved, comb honey has greater retail value than extracted honey ($25-$35/pound compared to $10-$18/pound). Comb honey production is more suitable for areas with an intense prolonged honey flow from

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

alfalfa Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial plant, perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, ...

, alsike, and yellow clover. Wooded areas are not as suitable for comb honey production, as bees tend to collect more propolis, making the harvesting of comb honey more difficult. This problem has been largely circumvented with the adoption of specialized frames, such as the Ross Round frame, which prevent accumulation of propolis on saleable units.

Hive management

Populous honey bee colonies are usually reduced to single hive body at the beginning of the honey flow when one or more comb honey supers are added. Comb honey can either be produced in wooden sections, shallow frames or Ross Rounds. The successful production of comb honey requires that the hive remain crowded without inducing

swarming Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective animal behaviour, collective behaviour exhibited by entities, particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving ''en masse'' or a ...

. Young prolific queens help rapid colony population expansion with less likelihood of swarming. Caucasian honey bees are often preferred for their tendency to keep a constricted brood nest and for their production of white wax cappings, making more attractive honey combs.

References

*''The New Comb Honey Book'', by Richard Clyde Taylor, 1981, Linden Books {{DEFAULTSORT:Comb Honey Honey Beekeeping

Hive management

See also

References