>In a UK environment too of course, this is NOT a viable option if you
>are looking to earn a living. 

In Alberta either.

Also wintering will suffer badly.

>Drawn comb brings comfortably the best honey harvest in terms of
>quantity.

True and proven over and over.  It has been said that drawn comb is a 
beekeeper's most essential asset.

>Drawn deeps 100
>Drawn shallows 79
>Foundation deeps 75
>Foundation shallows 60
>Thin super 48
>Starter strips 22

That bears repeating.

>A friend had 100 boxes on for cut comb this season in our heather area
>and he got precisely zero over 100 hives <snip>
>The friend trying for the cut comb chose his 100 best to do the job, the
>rest he gave drawn comb to. He extracted a reasonable harvest from
>those.

I used to produce a thousand or so supers of comb honey on foundation.  As 
you say, it takes a good flow, and can be spotty.  Some hives refuse.

>I now only come on here very rarely indeed as I am in deep disagreement
>with SOME of the most persistent contributors, in full agreement with
>others. The tone of things and its slant towards fringe views does not
>square with my experience and what I see in the field, and it only gets
>fractious if you wade in, hence my absence for so long.

Agreed, Murray.  I just happened to drop by too today, seeing as I just 
started writing again at http://www.honeybeeworld.com and maintaining the 
site a bit.  Thought I'd drop by to see if anything is new under the sun 
and was delighted to see your post.

Good to see you can present the hard, simnple facts so well.  Good writing 
style a popular theory and a good imagination are a poor match for 
extensive commercial experience and facts documented and presented 
directly.  Thanks. 

Where I live, the kind of comb rotation some theoreticians recommend would 
be financial suicide for a commercial beekeeper.  Bees neither produce or 
winter well on 100% new comb.  The best compromise for me has been 10% per 
year.  Of course, I don't use organophospates, and that reduces the panic 
to get that comb out of the hives.

>Will now retreat back to the bee work.

I'm running a few hives again, too. Don't know if I'll be back here much or 
not.  Haven't decided.

allen
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/

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