Cut comb and comb honey

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The law is also the kit list

This is the fact that decides everything else. Comb honey is defined in law as honey stored by bees in the cells of freshly built broodless combs, or of thin comb foundation made solely of beeswax, and sold in sealed whole combs or sections of them. 1

Read that again as a shopping list. It rules out wired foundation, plastic foundation and anything with a plastic core, because none of those is made solely of beeswax. On that wording, a frame that is not pure beeswax cannot produce comb honey in the legal sense. That reading is ours, but the words are plain enough.

It also rules out partly capped comb. The definition says sealed. 1

So you have exactly two legitimate routes:

• Thin unwired super foundation, sold specifically for the job.
• Foundationless, letting them build the whole comb.

What you must call it

Comb honey is honey, but you may not sell it under the plain name “honey”. The regulations require the name comb honey, and forbid using that name on anything that is not. 2 There is no “or honey” alternative, which there is for extracted, drained and pressed honey.

If there are pieces of comb sitting in liquid honey, the name is chunk honey or cut comb in honey. Again, those names may not be used on anything without comb in it. 3

In Wales the regulations print Welsh names as well: mêl diliau for comb honey, mêl talpiau for chunk honey, and diliau wedi eu torri mewn mêl for cut comb in honey. 4

Everything else on the label is the same as for a jar. Selling honey in the UK covers net quantity, best before, lot marking and origin.

There are no compositional favours

People assume comb honey gets some latitude because you cannot process it. It does not. The Schedule 1 criteria apply to comb honey, chunk honey and cut comb in honey exactly as they apply to a jar. 5

The one that bites is 20% water, or 23% for Calluna heather. 6 With extracted honey you can at least measure a bucket and blend or discard. With comb honey the water is sealed inside the cappings and there is nothing you can do about it afterwards.

That is the whole argument for only cutting comb from fully capped frames taken during a strong flow. Getting the honey out of the comb explains how moisture is measured and why fermentation is unrecoverable.

When to put it on

Comb honey needs bees with more nectar than they know what to do with. A strong colony on a strong flow will draw and cap thin foundation quickly. A middling colony on a middling flow will make a mess of it.

The shape of the year in most of Britain runs roughly like this: oilseed rape from April or May through most of June, hawthorn in May, clover and lime in July and August, Himalayan balsam in August and September. Your own patch will differ, and a fortnight either way is normal. The reliable comb honey windows are the rape flow and the summer clover and lime flow.

Practical points that make the difference:

• Put it on a colony that is already strong, not one you hope will get there.
• Give them less space than you would for extracting. A single comb super over a crowded brood box gets drawn properly. Two get drawn badly.
• Keep a queen excluder under it. Brood in a comb frame ends the whole exercise.
• Take it off as soon as it is capped. Comb left on gets travel stained and walked over.

Heather is a special case

Ling heather honey is thixotropic: a gel that does not run until it is stirred. That makes it very hard to extract and very good as comb honey, which is why so much heather is sold in the comb.

It also carries more water than most floral honeys, which is why the regulations allow Calluna up to 23%. 6 More water means more fermentation risk, so with heather especially, only fully capped combs are worth keeping.

Cutting and packing

Cut on a clean board with a long thin blade, warmed in water and wiped dry between cuts. A purpose made comb cutter gives a repeatable rectangle, which matters if you are selling. The common UK container takes about 227 g, which is 8 oz.

Then the part everyone gets wrong on their first attempt:

1. Drain the cut edges. Stand the pieces on a rack over a tray for several hours. Cut cells leak, and honey in the bottom of the box looks like a leak to a customer.
2. Freeze it. This is not optional if you are selling. Wax moth eggs are already in the comb and will hatch in the box on a shop shelf.
3. Let it come back to room temperature sealed, so condensation forms on the outside of the packaging rather than on the comb.

On freezing time, be careful with numbers you read elsewhere. The NBU’s figure of 24 hours in tightly closed bags kills every life stage of wax moth, and that is for bare frames. 8 We suggest 48 even for bare frames. A sealed retail box of cut comb is a much denser thing again, and its centre takes far longer to get cold, so give a packed box longer still. Cleaning, freezing and storing supers covers the frame case in full.

What sells, and what does not

Comb honey is judged entirely by eye, which is unfair but true. Buyers want an even colour, a full seal with no gaps, and a clean straight cut.

The two things that put people off are travel stain, the dark tracking left where bees have walked over cappings, and cells of pollen in the comb, which read as dirt to somebody who does not keep bees. Neither is a fault. Both cost you the sale.

The short version

• Only pure beeswax thin foundation, or none at all. No wire, no plastic.
• Only fully sealed comb. Partly capped is not comb honey in law.
• Call it comb honey, not honey. Comb in liquid is chunk honey or cut comb in honey.
• 20% water applies, and you cannot fix it after capping.
• Do not feed syrup with a comb super on.
• Strong colony, strong flow, one super, excluder underneath.
• Drain the cut edges, then freeze, then warm it up still sealed.