Comb honey is produced by honeybees in a hive. The bees fill the hexagon shaped wax cells of the honeycomb with honey and cap it with beeswax.
Before the invention of the honey extractor almost all honey produced was in the form of comb honey. Now, only very little honey is produced as comb honey. Comb honey production requires good beekeeping skills. It cannot be easily mechanized and is therefore quite labor intensive. Comb honey production is more suitable for areas with a prolonged honeyflow from dutch clover, alsike, and yellow clover. Areas that are wooded are not very suitable for comb honey production as bees tend to collect much propolis which makes the harvesting of comb honey much more difficult. This problem has been largely circumvented with the adoption of specialized frames, notably Ross Rounds, which prevent accumulation of propolis on saleable units.
Hive management
Populous honey bee colonies are usually reduced to single hive bodies at the beginning of the honeyflow when one or more comb honey supers are added. Comb honey can either be produced in wooden sections, shallow frames, or Ross Rounds. Presently in North America, the Ross Rounds method is likely the most common comb honey production system. The successful production of comb honey requires that the hive remains somewhat crowded without overcrowding which leads to swarming. Young prolific queens help rapid colony population expansion with less likelihood of swarming. Caucasian apis mellifera 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 Hive and the Honeybee, Chapter 16 The Production of Comb and Bulk Comb Honey by Carl E. Killion, 1975 published by Dadant & Sons
- The New Comb Honey Book, by Richard Taylor, 1981, Linden Books
- Honey in the Comb by Eugene Killion, 1981, Dadant & Sons
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