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RE: What to do with honeycomb? Ideas from a beekeeper
I'm an inexperienced beekeeper who has been watching our new bee hive and anxiously worrying through winter when it seemed that there was no activity. At one point I actually was afraid that they had died out however I was reassured on a sunny day to see they where still active and am looking forward to the warmer months before I will attempt to harvest some honeycomb. I must admit I was wondering how I was going to separate the honey from the wax but you've encouraged me to think more about just using it directly. You've also encouraged me to take some photo's so I can make a post on the subject myself. Thanks for you insight.
H Jeza! Bees stop flying below about 8-9 degrees Celsius, or if there's no forage, so perfectly normal to not see any activity during the winter - they're smart and conserve their energy when it's cold and there's not much to eat.
If you do want to separate the honey from the wax without having to purchase an expensive spinner, you can just crush it and put it through a sieve. A lot of honey stays with the wax if you do that and, because it's a terrible thing to waste, you can wash the wax and use the honey water to make mead, then use the beeswax for candles, cosmetics etc. I'll do posts about all that sort of stuff too.
Feel free to ask questions, always happy to help a fellow beekeeper and I'll follow along to see how you go - good luck!