Comb honey production using Ross Round style equipment: center comb is complete, right in progress.
Beehive with Ross Round style comb honey super and frames exposed.
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. 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 best develop their beekeeping skills by producing comb honey, which they can easily sell for several times its value as extracted honey. 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. Virtually all commercial beekeepers and a large percentage of other beekeepers produce comb honey using Ross Round equipment as it provides the best combination of reasonable cost and labor savings compared to other methods.
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.
