Hogg Halfcomb Frames
The 40-cassette Hogg Halfcomb system was originally invented and developed by Dr. John Hogg, a Missouri beekeeper, Ph.D. chemist, and inventor. After many years of testing and perfecting the design, he sold the design to Pennsylvanian beekeeper Herman Danenhower. Herman divides his time between producing honey (mostly Hogg comb honey sections – 1000’s each year) and manufacturing the Hogg Halfcomb system. As a comb honey producer himself, he was in the perfect position to design a brand new way for beekeepers to use the now-standard Hogg Halfcomb cassettes to make comb honey.
Betterbee.com interviewed Herman to learn more about his new Hogg Halfcomb Frame, and how he hopes it will change the way beekeepers think about comb honey production. Read on to hear highlights from the interview.
What is the new Hogg Halfcomb Frame?
The Hogg Frame fits comfortably into a regular super, allowing the bees to make eight comb honey sections while they’ll filling up the rest of the super during the spring honey flow.
Herman explained, “The Hogg Halfcomb Frame will fit four Hogg cassettes in one side, four cassettes in the other, and then click together. The smaller beekeeper can make eight honeycombs for friends or family, and not lay out the bigger investments for a Ross Round or the full 40-cassette Hogg Halfcomb system.”
The pre-waxed cassettes used in the Hogg Frames are “exactly the same cassettes from the regular Hogg Halfcomb system.” So the same lids, labels, and cassettes with a foundation pattern at the bottom are all the same proven and easy-to-market comb honey sections that farmers' market customers go crazy for.
The plastic “fence” on the outside of the frame helps to establish the proper bee space, both within the Hogg cassettes and for the frames on either side of the Hogg Frame. This “prevents them from drawing the frame opposite of it deep into the Hogg cassette. And when the bees are working on the comb honey, it stops them at the right place, so you get uniform capped comb.”
Is this good if I’ve never made comb honey before?
The molded “fence” has long holes that allow bees to come and go, but establishes the bee space on the inside and outside of the frame.
“It's a very affordable way to see if they want to continue to try to make comb honey. A common problem that we've got is folks will buy the Ross Round system, or a Hogg Halfcomb system, or a comb honey super with thin foundation, but then they struggle to manage the bees to actually make comb honey. It's a big task for bees to draw a whole Hogg super of comb and then fill it up during a flow. Now a newer beekeeper isn't going to have to be doing quite as much very technical beekeeping if they just want to get eight combs, eight cassettes drawn out in a single frame.”
The advantage of the Hogg Frame is that you can produce good comb sections even with normal hive management as long as your bees have a good honey flow to work with.
What about people who already make comb honey?
But Herman also pointed out how great these Hogg Frames are for people already using the complete Hogg Halfcomb system: “A lot of times, when you try to make your 40 Hogg combs, there's eight or so of them that the bees didn't quite finish. You can throw those in a Hogg Frame and put them back out there and get those eight finished in an extracting super. So it has value even if you already use the full Hogg system. I've already been selling frames to some of my colleagues so they can finish off cassettes that are not quite finished in the full system.”
If one Hogg Frame is good, are two even better? What about three?
We asked Herman if we could fill an entire super with his new Hogg Frames and make lots of comb honey that way. We really respected his answer, and want to make sure our readers know how Herman does business. He told us: “Well, certainly, you can put in as many as you would like to try. I have complete supers with only these frames in, that we experimented with and they work well.” But he cautioned: “Before I make any kind of sales pitch on that, I’m going to put in a lot of time this coming spring testing that method.” He told us: “I was very successful with a whole shallow super of these frames. I think it's going to work fine, but I don't like to sell or promote something until I've done it myself.”
