Hi Aaron.  I was running the rounds for a few years and basically decided
to give it up in favor of cut comb. The packaging for rounds gets expensive
and if you wholesale them like I was doing, it isn't worth the reduced
overall production per hive.  With cut comb you can extract it if it
doesn't look nice.  Plus, there have in recent years been new containers on
the market which are cheap and ideally suited to cut comb.  On the other
hand, the sections will granulate slower, in my experience (but the larger
combs can be frozen & kept until needed and then cut).  I have also done
away with the need for foundation sheets in the shallow frames by wedging a
1" or so wide strip of foundation into the top bar groove with three small
(1") pieces of cardboard.  This is quick and easy.  Bend the cardboard and
shove it into the groove with hive tool, pinching foundation strip in.
Upon cutting the finished product, a narrow ridge of comb is left for the
bees to build onto next time.  Usually they will follow it.
 
I wasn't producing loads of sections, about 1500/yr, but the rounds were my
only supers at that time.  I split the colonies into 2-queen units like
John Hogg has described in the literature, one chamber per queen.  That
really got them into the supers.  They wanted to swarm, though, badly.
Later on i gave this up and I tried reducing colonies at swarming time
(early-mid May) to 4 good frames of mostly capped brood and the queen
(remove swarm cells!) in the single brood chamber, the balance being filled
with empty combs.  The rest of the brood with adhering bees made up a new
colony for another stand.  Supered the parent, single brood chambers with
round sections. The results were amazing. The bees in the parent colony
gave up on queen cell building and went crazy in the sections.  Still had
all the field bees and evidently enough brood kept emerging to keep things
at optimum.  Had I left more brood I think they would have kept building
swarm cells.  Anyway, hives had sometimes 6-8 cobanas (over an excluder) in
a short time.  No more swarming trouble and beautiful sections. Splits were
re-united in August providing nice new queens. I then would get a crop
(inconsistent) of fall honey sections.
 
Basically, I loved the idea of the sections but there was too much luck
(work?) involved in getting the bees up onto them and in getting them
completed evenly every year.  Actually a more striking reason for me is
that I couldn't well afford the supers as I was expanding.  Richard Taylor
seemed disappointed I might add, when I gave them up.  In my experience the
bees produce more honey pound for pound when given frames than when given
sections.  It is crucial, however, for cut-comb that the package looks
sharp.  I have seen many hideous packages that make it look terrible.  I
had a lot of luck with the midget cut comb boxes which are 2 1/2 inches
square.  They sell great but the clear plastic boxes are also too expensive
IMO.
 
Food for thought.  If you can get a great price and can buy the rings,
caps, etc. in large quantities then you're probably all set.  If you have
good crops that you can pretty much count on, all the better.  If I'd had
the capital I probably would have gone with the rounds for good, then
concentrated more on management and choice of locations.  But I began
inheriting regular supers and wanted to just have one comb/extracted frame
for uniformity.
 
I haven't tried the Hogg sections but I have corresponded with John.  The
units I saw advertized were still pretty pricey.
 
I feel comb honey should be more prominent on the market.  People find it
interesting and they will go a long way to get it.  Good luck in your
endeavors; always make the package look superb and it will sell itself.
This is easy with the sections you are using.  But I've also seen
underweight, uncapped, and leaky rounds on the market which do us no favors
in promotion. (I think the opaque cover on one side is a lousy idea too.)
 
Wishing you a huge 96 crop with nice white cappings....        JWG
 
P.S.  The best bees I've tried for the sections are Buckfast.  They work
cleanly with nice wax and without much swarming tendency.  You might give
them a try for fun.
 
Joel Govostes    Freeville, NY