The Hows and Whys of Producing Comb Honey

Reader Contribution by Jennifer Ford

My husband and I have been extracting honey and collecting beeswax from our hives for quite a few years now. This year, we decided to try something new – producing comb honey. We were lucky enough to be in contact with a beekeeper who has produced large amounts of comb honey, and was able to guide us through the process. Here is what we have learned.

First, a little background. Comb honey is an amazing product of the hive. It is the most unprocessed form of honey – not extracted, filtered, or heated, and still in the comb. It is great to eat as is, to spread on toast, or to serve on crackers with a mild blue cheese- yum! If you sell your honey, it can be a great product to add to your current offerings.

The first step in producing comb honey is to identify your strongest hives coming out of winter. The bees will have to make both new beeswax comb and fill it with honey before capping. Using only very strong hives ensures that you will have full supers of honeycomb before the end of the season.

You will also need to decide what type of comb honey you will produce. There are several ways to make comb honey, but we decided to make two types this year – cut comb and Ross Round. I will explain how we produced these two types below.

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