Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: vmmartin on June 16, 2013, 01:15:01 am
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(http://s22.postimg.org/oyf0hi2ul/Comb_honey.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/oyf0hi2ul/)
I tried it and it worked.
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Well, it's pretty dang cool ! ! !
OK now, spill the beans cause enquiring beeks wanna know. And don't tell us you put the jar in the hive with a honey label on it so they knew what to put in it !.
Serious crowding?
Heavy flow?
If yer gonna throw it out their for braggin rights at least give us the story!
And yup its pretty cool. Can ya do it again?
Old Blue
Where its been a while since we've seen "pretty cool". In..........................................................
Kali-bone-ya
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How cool? VERY. :rainbowflower:
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I started with 3/4" plywood lid with 12 holes in it that pint jars would rest in.
Placed it on a very strong but not overcrowded single deep on May 19th.
I put a small piece of cut-out comb in the bottom of each jar and heated it to make it stick when the jar was inverted.
The early spring flow for use was slowing down, but our Chinese Tallow flow was picking up. It is our major flow in these parts.
The bees started slowly, but by about June 7th, they were blowing and going.
I was getting a little concerned over the last week or so. Temps in the mid to upper 90's and some serious bearding going on from noon till way after dark. I gave them some extra ventilation and pulled the jars yesterday because I knew they had to be getting crowded.
Sure enough, they were starting to backfill the brood nest, but no swarm cells had been started. I added a second deep and stacked the brood so I will see what they do now.
I do not see why I could not do it again.
Not sure if it is financially viable yet. I am not sure what price to put on the artwork. Normally a pint goes for around $8 here and $10 with comb in it. I have never seen it sold with built in comb.
It was very neat to watch the process though.
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you de boy hoss
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Sweet!
Scott
(BTW Mike, I finally got your OB honey...pm me an address)
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ok,now i get it, not bad for a East Texas hick:),,good job Mike ,you have to be a beekeeper to appreciate all the extras you did. Bruce
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does that come in a squeeze bottle?
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That's awesome, thanks for sharing.... :-D
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My wife was wanting to try it out on one of our hives. I told her maybe next year.
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That is really cool stuff. Great work!!
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Genius! New market technique??? Let us know what you get for it, if you intend on selling them. Honey without extracting and in the comb... :shock:. Very clever!
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Did they fill all the jars?
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i wonder if this would be possible with a top bar hive?
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That's a good one, Mike. May have to try that next year for comb honey customers.
Thanks for the post.
Joe
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Super cool..
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Did they fill all the jars?
Yes they did fill all twelve. Here is what they looked like on about day 14.
(http://s14.postimg.org/qy7w5hgtp/Jars.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/qy7w5hgtp/)
Duck, I do not think a squeeze jar would be that appealing.
REDBEE, coming from you, I take that comment as a huge compliment. Really, I just took a chance and the bees did the rest. They made this one easy. Probably trying to suck me into trying it again and then they will turn the tables on me and make a mess.
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Way cool that it worked out
way cool that you had time to do it
Way cool to look at from that perspective
Way Cool
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Now just pour extracted honey in there to fill it up and sell it.
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I've heard that those sell for around $30 a jar.
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I was thinking about ebay for $40 with shipping included. Who knows, might be able to increase my profit margin. Will let y'all know.
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AWESOME! I've been wanting to try that and you've given me the push to do it.
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wow, great work. (pass the praise onto the girls)Thanks for posting.
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Just bought the jars and will be cutting the wood this weekend. Thanks again for posting.
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Insert a piece of paper with the technique of how some crooked honey farmers make fake honey, which is next to impossible to tell if it is real, without scientifically analyzing it, but with it being in sealed comb, you 'know' it is from the bees, and people will surely buy it more. although in jars like that, I have to imagine it is a lot harder for them to seal and dry it out, since glass doesn't breath so well. but cool all the same, and your bees do your packaging for you for free... which also, means you bypass any processing laws like we have in MI. I would think.
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China, the master of counterfeit, sells a lot of "fake" honey. They export it to other countries who will export or label it, then resell it to distributors in the US. From the article I read it's basically A honey flavored type of corn syrup. I'll try to find the article if anyone is interested. Having read the article I still don't see how it is profitable for them.
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I was a little concerned about moisture and humidity as well. However, when I would peep in on them (which was just about every day) I never saw any condensation in the jars and they seemed to fill and cap without any complications. I was also watchful for larva since I did not use an excluder. But, once they get in there and go to building, it just looks like a jar of bees.
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Very nice. This past Monday our bee inspector brought a glass cake pan cover in to our meeting with it filled with comb and the bees still in it. It looked really nice. He did not put any wax in it and they built it from the bottom up instead of from the top down.
Jim
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What a fantastic idea! They look great! Will you top them up with honey before you sell them or leave them as is?
Thanks for sharing - definitely going to give this a go in the Spring :)
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I was thinking about ebay for $40 with shipping included. Who knows, might be able to increase my profit margin. Will let y'all know.
You get anywhere near that let me know! I will have boards cut and on top of all of mine next year :-D I have seen that claim on youtube but just can't see it. Never know though, it would make a cool gift until it crystallizes :-D
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I've got them on 2 hives and the bees are drawing it out but slower than I anticipated, especially considering we've got a very heavy flow on right now. One hive I cut down from 4 deeps and 2 supers to 2 deeps and 2 supers the other one I left as 3 supers and 2 deeps. These are my strongest hives and were either completely full in the supers or backfilling a couple frames that still had capped brood but otherwise +95% capped.
I'm seeing some condensation in the jars (it's unseasonably cool here right now) but not sure if I should reduce further to promote comb building.