Never mind, we just tossed the honeycomb...it was mostly just the wax, some larva and a tiny honey so we tossed it in the garbage...

Too bad...
a bit late, not much of help, I'm a newbie, first time with two hives this year.

I wouldn't worry about sucking the honey out of the comb ...sooo tasty, better than any store
bought [pasteurized]

Anywhere, where a swarm of bees has settled for some time, bees live a scent behind and stays for a long time, [Years]...so it is important to seal off all tiny holes and cracks, otherwise soon there will be a good chance that another one is moving in!
Konrad

Konrad, I'm interested in your remark about bought honey being pasteurised. I was once a commercial beekeeper and I've never heard of that. Is it usual practice in the USA? I'm in New Zealand but I have read American beekeeping "bibles" such as "The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture" and don't recall having read anything about pasteurisation of honey. Why would it be pasteurised? It certainly wouldn't improve its keeping qualities, as in milk.

Commerical honey (especially those sold in supermarkets) is often pasteurized. I have gathered info on it from various websites. Just Google it and you will find out more.

PASTEURIZED HONEY

Pasteurization of honey is a marketing issue not a health issue. The heating process in pasteurization extends the shelf life of honey by destroying the natural "seed" crystals that cause granulation and fermentation. Natural sugar tolerant yeasts are present in honey and they will grow if the moisture level is too high (over 18%) and storage temperature too warm. Honey is more likely to ferment after it has granulated, so to prevent both granulation and fermentation, a pasteurization process is used to kill the sugar tolerant yeasts.
In the bulk honey industry where moisture levels in extracted honey are often higher than naturally ripened honey and where packers want their product to remain liquid for a long period of time, pasteurization is a necessity. The commercial equipment at packing establishments is made to heat honey quickly to 160 degrees F (71 degrees C) for four minutes and then cool it quickly through a heat exchanger. Without this equipment to heat and cool honey rapidly, the quality of the heated honey would be lower.

Botulism spores and Pasteurized Honey

Honey has a high sugar content which does not support the growth of bacteria. One of the benefits of honey is that it can be used as a bactericide and a healing agent for minor cuts, burns and intestinal upsets. Despite this fact, it is possible for Clostridium botulinum spores to exist in honey. Pasteurization or heat treatment of honey does not kill these spores. Many medical professional mistakenly associate the term pasteurization with the heat sterilization method used in the dairy and apple juice industry. Pasteurization in the honey industry is a process that kills sugar tolerant yeasts in order to extend the shelf life. The heating process is not high enough to break the tough coat of a botulism spore.

The good news is that a recent Health Canada study of Canadian honey from various sources across the country showed no botulism spores.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Enzymes are said to be the vital force behind every living organism and without them life is said to have a hard time existing.

In fact, raw, unpasteurized honey is known to be high in enzymes, but after pasteurization, honey loses all of its enzymes. When pasteurized honey is fed to bees, it actually kills the bees because pasteurized honey is enzyme depleted. One might say then that pasteurized honey is missing its vital force.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

A jar of honey likely loiters at the back of your kitchen board labeled either "pasteurized" or "non-pasteurized", We think of the pasteurization process as a health matter, ensuring products such as milk or apple juice are safe for mass consumption. However, the pasteurization of honey is a marketing issue not a health concern. The heating process in honey pasteurization extends the shelf life of the food by destroying the natural "seed" crystals that cause granulation and fermentation. If packers want their product to remain liquid for a long period of time, as on grocery store shelves, pasteurization is a necessity. If you've purchased raw or non-pasteurized honey and it crystallized over time, you may be tempted to discard it. Actually, the crystallization process has nothing to do with its purity or moisture content, but depends on the proportion of the various sugars in the honey, which, in turn depends on the floral sources used by the bees. In fact, honey keeps almost indefinitely. Edible honey has been unearthed from Egyptian ruins...

...Honey is a powerhouse of nutrition, delivering fructose, glucose, water and other sugars, in addition to many enzymes, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. In addition, it contains a host of antioxidants, which are used by the body to eliminate free radicals (nasty molecules which zip around in healthy cells and have the potential to damage them). It therefore makes a good alternative to sugar in food and drink...

Thanks Oyster..

>>Pasteurization of honey is a marketing issue not a health issue

Most People, IMO believe, that pasteurized honey is perhaps safer or better....some kind of a
mental issue...

I have never actually thought about it before, [being pasteurized] but lately I have been reading allot.
Some people would not get "Pure Honey", my very first customer wants it pasteurized!
I'm just the other way around.
Konrad

pasteurization implies that it kills bacteria. Honey is only heated to 150. It kills nothing, but it makes it real clear, pretty much destroys the food value, and takes away most of the good flavor too.

But it gives it a long shelf life.

Come on everyone... Pasteur was using heat to kill bacteria. If this heat process is simply to kill the poor flavor of cheap imported honey and to keep it from crystalizing, it's not pasteurization at all. it's simply heating it for a long shelf life.

Thank you for the explanation. Very interesting indeed, as I have never heard of the pasteurisation of honey in this country, where honey production is a significant industry.

I'm a cancer survivor, and recently underwent a treatment protocol involving high-dose chemotherapy. My immune system is temporarily compromised, so I have to be careful about what I eat or drink. A nutrition guide I received from the hospital told me not to eat unpasteurized honey, only that which is pasteurized. Is this misguided? To date, I haven't located pasteurized honey. I called one honey producer, and they told me theirs is not pasteurized, and they didn't know if their competitors pasteurized their products or not.