Allen Dick said " If I were to do it all again, I think I'd just make cut
comb."  For those who are not aware, at one point Allen was one of the
largest producers of comb honey in the United States.  A major portion of
that production was section comb honey using Ross Round equipment.
Moreover, for some 20 years I owned Ross Rounds and Allen purchased the
supplies directly from ourselves.

I was disappointed to hear that if Allen had to do it again he would not
use Ross Rounds, but would instead produce cut comb.

Some would say that the ability to consistently produce comb honey is a
marker for identifying beekeepers who are truly expert at the trade of
beekeeping or managing honey bees.  A great deal of the success of Ross
Rounds is that the equipment design significantly enhances the ability of
the beekeeper to succeed at comb honey production.

A major reason why beekeepers are not successful at comb honey production
is that the hive must be crowded with brood and bees, which means that the
queen may lay in the comb honey super, making such comb completely
unsuitable for comb honey.  To prevent the queen from laying in comb honey
supers, some use queen excluders to keep the queen in the brood box, and
that can lead to excessive swarming, which also means that the hive will
not produce comb honey.  One of the advantages of Ross Round equipment is
that many queens seem to dislike the basic design so the hive does not
produce brood in the supers.  At one point I produced thousands of Ross
Round sections annually and never used a queen excluder and had little
swarming. By using Ross Round equipment, many beekeepers can successfully
produce comb honey while they might fail at producing cut comb.

That said, cut comb is easily the most attractive comb honey product.
Today I have only one retail customer, and they annually purchase several
thousand pieces of cut comb, which is the only comb honey product I produce.

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