REGARDING RE>Commercial Beekeeping with TBDs? Regarding comb honey production in tbh's, Allen Dick wrote: >1. An astute marketer could sell these combs for extremely high prices to gourmet and fashion food places -- or export into some European markets. Packaging and storage is the problem. They would have to be frozen. 2. Although cost of production is higher per unit, it would be possible to run a *commercial* beekeeping business using only these hives.< This is a very real possibility. Certain ethnic groups in my area (Detroit, Michigan), such as middle eastern Arabs, Persians, etc. greatly value pure comb honey, and desire to buy it in bulk (i.e., cut and pressed into 5 gallon pails). The comb is to them the absolute guarantee of purity, and they will gladly pay premium prices for it, while looking suspiciously at extracted honey. They would be especially impressed if they could see how the comb is directly cut off these top bars into the pails that they would purchase. This is not how I do honey, so I always have to turn them down, but I would love to have a few contacts in this general area to refer such customers to. Ted Fischer Dexter, Michigan USA