[Bonus] Short - Midwest Honey Bee Expo Interviews: Comb Honey Innovation and Feeding Solutions (Part 2)

[Bonus Short] Midwest Honey Bee Expo Interviews: Beekeepers and Innovations (Part 2)

Recorded at the 2026 Midwest Honey Bee Expo

Jeff Ott

Welcome to Beekeeping Today Podcast Shorts, your quick dive into the latest buzz in beekeeping.

Becky Masterman

In 20 minutes or less, we'll bring you one important story, keeping you informed and up to date.

Jeff Ott

No fluff, no fillers. Just the news you need.

Becky Masterman

Brought to you by Betterbee, your partners in better beekeeping

Jeff Ott

Hey everybody, we're sitting here with Madison and her dad Mick Fry from SimplKomb. Welcome to our humble booth. Oh, thank you.

Good morning, Jeff.

Becky Masterman

They're from SimplKomb, but they're also from Minnesota.

Jeff Ott

I'm sorry.

Becky Masterman

Oh I'm sorry.

Jeff Ott

Oh boy. I'm gonna get hate mail now. Yep, you're for it.

Mick Fry

But we're right next to a door that keeps opening.

Jeff Ott

So we're getting the cool breeze. Oh my gosh. I mean it's like now I know why my mom always has to say, close the refrigerator door.

Anyways, so you're with SimplKomb. Tell us about SimplKomb and how did it start and and the st background story and what it is.

Mick Fry

So background story is I'm a farm kid, uh also an engineer, and when I started keeping bees about five years ago, I kind of looked at the equipment we were using and decided why are we using stuff that was invented by a Presbyterian minister in the eighteen fifties. Religion not aside, right?

Jeff Ott

Yeah.

Mick Fry

Right. Um and so the woodenware that I used uh is great and I use uh a flow high for liquid honey and that kind of made sense to me in my engineering brain. But we discovered comb honey and how wonderful it is to eat.

and I wanted to make more of that, but that was really a pain. So I decided to try and make comb honey production more like the flowhive is to liquid honey production, right? To make it simpler, simplify it.

And also there was just a lot of waste when you cut comb out. There's about 30% of it around the edge that kind of gets drained out and wasted and it's too precious a gift to just let it go down the drain, right? So um engineering background I kind of put my tinkering cap on and started making some stuff in my shop at home and lo and behold Pretty soon the bees filled up one of my prototypes and I thought, aha You got it.

Got something.

Becky Masterman

Nice.

Mick Fry

Um my wife and my daughter usually roll their eyes when I tell them to call my big idea is at supper, but this one they said, Hmm, maybe that can go somewhere. I know that I will. Dad is on to something.

Madison Fry

I signed up for this crazy idea. We launched back in 2023 making a comb honey production system that then becomes the end consumer package for comb honey. So it takes the labor and the sticky mess out of it for the beekeepers, bringing trying to bring comb honey more into the mainstream make it a more valuable um product for beekeepers to produce and harvest and then be able to retail to their customers as well.

Mick Fry

So describe the product. So the cassette is just a container for comb. honey but it is also the production system for comb honey.

Unlike a Ross Round or a hog half cone system there are no other parts and pieces to buy, to maintain, to clean, and to keep track of, right? The cassette is the container and that's really all you need. It mates with your woodenware that you probably already know and love, a medium standard frame.

And it's made from a recycled material called Arpet, which is food grade P-E-T. It's made from a recycled water puddles.

Becky Masterman

So it's about as green a plastic as you got. Okay, nice. Nice.

Jeff Ott

So you put it you insert it in a regular medium frame.

Mick Fry

Yep. You fold it up and it inserts into the slots of the lower and the upper bars on the medium frame. You put one on each side and you wax those.

We like to paint on our own beeswax. We feel that the bees recognize their own wax a little quicker than they would recognize wax that you might buy commercially. But it does need to be 100% pure beeswax paraffin or any other sense or Paint that on and of course you need the trifecta in beekeeping.

You need a strong collie during a strong flow. And if you do it right and you limit the access to other places to store honey, they will fill it up and draw it out and fill it up with beautiful cone. honey and they'll cap it at the right height and you close the package and you're ready to go.

Jeff Ott

So the so when you close the package it's all in self-contained. So you're there's no cutting out.

Madison Fry

Exactly yeah. The bees build it right inside of the package. Our lids are integrated into the system so they're going to fold behind to snap into your frame and then when you're ready to harvest that lid closes right up right there.

Makes a beautiful product when you lay it on a charcuterie board. You can scoop the comb honey right out of there, spread it on a cracker with your meats and cheeses, or spread it on your toast as well. But all contained right in

Mick Fry

that package breaks apart into those individual servings from the little bit different form factor. People are used to seeing a four inch by four inch brick of double sided comb money. But we do that for a reason.

Madison Fry

Mm-hmm. It helps we think hobby SB keepers break into a different market of folks who may not have been used to comb honey, didn't grow up with it, you know, a new generation of people getting into beekeeping have may not tried it before and might not be willing to slap down 25 bucks for a big four-inch block. As opposed to simple comb comes out to be about six ounces per container, nationwide average for comb honey is about two dollars an ounce.

Mick Fry

So we can get, you know, ten to fifteen dollars for that um sample of comb honey retailing.

Madison Fry

Yeah. Um so allows folks to buy into trying comb honey for the first time, get them hooked and keep 'em coming back.

Mick Fry

So if you could sell each package for ten dollars. There are 80 packages in a 10-frame super if you get 100% fill. Right.

So that would net about $800 from one super of honey that has about 65 to 70% the amount of coal money that would be in a normal super. but none of it gets wasted, right? So that other 30% goes up to the next super.

But $800 on one super of honey, you get money for a beekeeper, one box.

Becky Masterman

Right, right. And if that might be daunting to a beekeeper who might not be ready to sell eight hundred dollars, but If you take the packages, can you keep them in the freezer? Yes.

So once they're drawn out and then for sale later? 100%.

Mick Fry

Don't even need to, right? Comb honey is nature's most perfect food in a perfect package.

Becky Masterman

It could crystallize though, right?

Mick Fry

I haven't seen it yet.

Becky Masterman

Okay.

Mick Fry

Suppose it could. It could eventually.

Becky Masterman

But I think it's also safe to keep it in the freezer to prevent that crystallization. So I just I don't want I don't want beekeepers to be a f you could also start with a couple frames, right? In the in the super.

Mick Fry

Correct.

Madison Fry

We have uh a few different ways to do that to ensure that the bees will build and cap them at the right height. That's the biggest danger we run into is if fill it, um, throw the cymbal comb in high with other drawn frames, they might get a little wonky, right? Okay, okay.

The idea without fitting an entire 10-frame super is that you're managing the B space. space properly so they're gonna fill it to the correct height. We have some approaches of how to do that if you um fill up a regular fully drawn super, let them cap those frames, take a few out of the center, and place those with simple comb.

That makes sense. storage option they'll stop at that at that barricade.

Jeff Ott

Would you would you put the two the simple combs right beside each other?

Mick Fry

Right. The cassette is designed to have these uh what I call bosses on the corners and those need to touch each other between the frames. Okay The bee space.

So the bees can get in and out of the cassettes, but then when they're building out, they come to the middle and they kind of know to stop and cap it there at the right height. If you leave too much space, most people are used to doing nine frames in a honey super. If you do that, then they're gonna build it too thick and the cover doesn't close.

Becky Masterman

So the easiest way to do it is to go ahead and do the whole super at a time and then we think so and obviously you do need the trifecta again.

Mick Fry

We're having customers report that they're having really good success Yes, uh with swarms.

Madison Fry

Okay.

Mick Fry

Because they're prolific wax builders. They put a swarm in a single brood chamber and then one super of silicone above that. They're finding that they fill faster than they will over a double brood box.

Becky Masterman

And I bet bottom supering might help if you go ahead and you've got some supers that are already in play and being filled out and drawn and then if you put the simple comb right above the excluder you might get a little bit of a encouragement. That was a hard way to a queen excluder?

Jeff Ott

Yeah would you want to put a queen excluder in there?

Mick Fry

Um some people call them honey excluders. I think David calls them honey excluders, right? Um David doesn't know everything.

Without a queen excluder obviously you run the risk of having some eggs up there. That can happen. Um I think sometimes if you have a full uh super of honey that is capped between the brood box and you put simple comb above that, it works.

Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Ott

Well very cool.

Becky Masterman

I love love the idea. of getting beekeepers started in comb production because it is it's such a great tool to add when you're selling honey. And it's honestly they should be thinking about holiday gifts, right?

Mick Fry

For 2026.

Becky Masterman

This is a great holiday gift for your friends.

Mick Fry

product to introduce young people to beekeeping because it's kind of a fun activity to sit down and paint on the wax.

Becky Masterman

Oh sure, that makes sense. And it smells good right? Yeah.

Jeff Ott

Well that's fun. across the wa the booth the aisle, the hallway from us. And that's you're getting a lot of activities and that's really good.

That's exciting to see for comb hunting.

Madison Fry

It is exciting. Yeah.

Jeff Ott

Way back when it was like Richard Taylor and and doing the cut comb hunting or just comb and that was like phenomenal to see the stuff they were coming out, but it was very hard and very difficult and very difficult.

Mick Fry

And it's been a niche product. Yes. And it we think because of that reason, because of how difficult it is, and maybe because we've been a little bit rigid on standardizing what comb honey should look like, a four by four inch brick.

Yeah aesthetically perfect, right?

Jeff Ott

Yeah, and the bass wood frames and everything. But you m you make it available to everybody, so I like it. It's a great idea.

I like it. I'll have to give it a try. Thank you.

Madison, if anybody wants to find out about simple comb, how do they find out more information.

Madison Fry

Yeah, you can find more information on our website, just SimplKomb. com, S-I-M-P-L-K-O-M-B, spelt weird for a reason. And we're on social media as well at SimplKomb.

You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as too.

Jeff Ott

Well thanks so much for stopping by and and good luck and look forward to seeing you here at the Midwest Honey Bee Expo next year. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having me.

Hey everybody, we are in the booth here at the Midwest Honey Bee Expo with G. And Gary Drumright of BRB feeder. This is an innovative product.

Please.

Becky Masterman

First of all, let's talk about BRB feeder because I want to say it's be right back, but it's not, is it? No, we didn't.

Gigi Drumright

Bull run. Bull run. And so our honey business is bull run bees.

Okay. And so when we came up when my husband designed this feeder, um, it just naturally was like B R B feeder. I love it.

You know, we made it as simple as possible. It's easy to say.

Becky Masterman

Yeah. Yeah. So first of all, why did you decide to design a feeder?

Gary Drumright

Well the f the whole concept came about when I was actually trying to feed jars right through the outer cover. Which is like Most of the commercial guys, you'll see them do it all the time. And then I realized that there were issues also with that method of feeding.

And I wanted to fix those issues. One of the first issue was the water intrusion, you know, to get a jar, a metal lid to sail. on top of a metal roof is almost impossible.

Becky Masterman

Okay.

Gary Drumright

And I didn't want any water in my hives at all, especially where we live. It rains a lot, so that was an issue. Secondly was dealing with those rusty jar lids.

They were always rusty jar lids. And the last thing was I did not have control over how many holes were in the jar lids. I was always looking for one that had more holes or fewer holes.

Jeff Ott

Okay.

Gary Drumright

So that was, you know, those three big issues was really what drove the concept of where we're at today.

Becky Masterman

So you looked at that jar and you said we've got to be able to do better.

Gary Drumright

I've got to improve on this. We can do better.

Becky Masterman

Exactly. Okay.

Gary Drumright

Yeah, and we started out really just doing it for ourselves.

Gigi Drumright

Okay, yeah, yeah. Then we had some beekeeping friends that every time well first of all let me back up and say he did had the design but our son uh is our cat person behind the scenes oh nice person yeah so he said you know I need you to draw this and I need you to buy a 3D printer and we're gonna start doing this. So this has been several years in the making of getting it to where it is now.

You know, we have a lot of beekeeping friends in our clubs, local clubs, and we handed out samples and said, you know, test them. Tell us what you think, what we need to do to make it better. So it's been several years in the making, and we finally got it.

to where um we like it. It is a it's a blah color, but we found out early on that reds and yellows probably wasn't a good idea money bar because you're just attracting everything that you didn't want to attract.

Becky Masterman

You know I was going to ask if it came in different colors. I don't want that. I love okay, I love that.

That you figured that out. That's fantastic.

Gary Drumright

We have a lot of yellow jackets in our area and they were uh they're new Yeah, and then the hornets that are coming. We try not to attract anything to our APRIs. That's that's our number one goal.

Gigi Drumright

The inner the first the first design too, first prototype, you know, allowed uh syrup to come out to the edge. Well now we eliminated that because we want to contain the syrup in the middle and have this buffer so that also provides a buffer zone to keep the pest out and uh now we don't have that issue.

Jeff Ott

So you mount this on the top of the phone. of the hive cover. And what size of hole is that on the roughly a one inch hole.

Gary Drumright

One inch. Just enough the hole diameter is just enough for the bees to pass up and down through there to get to the feeder itself.

Gigi Drumright

If you had a hole like we did on some of ours up to it'll cover up to a inch hole and then you just put a bead of caulking down and you uh screw it down with the stainless steel screws and then when you're not feeding this is the feed area this is like I said the buffer when you're not feeding this uh plug snaps in tight and so you got a watertight seals.

Jeff Ott

And the same thing with the jar when it's upside down it snaps in place?

Gigi Drumright

Well it doesn't snap but it engages. So you can feed you have it you can expose one or seven holes. We generally will start out like in spring buildup or even in a dirt that This is just a big production hive.

We're just trying to maintain them. Uh especially in the spring buildup, they're bringing in pond. We want to try to maintain that they have a food a nectar source to have healthy bees.

We'll may just do a three. And then when you turn it over it kind of kind of locks in snug. That looks good.

And it we've never had any blowover and even with the buckets we've never had any blowover. But um we also feed going into a dirt as soon as we pull honey we want to feed them to

Gary Drumright

you know kind of pacify them and say hey stop lobby we got you something to it's it's it's all about that trickle feeding or slowing down that feed rate for a longer period of time which benefits the bees so much more than bulk feeding. Yeah.

Becky Masterman

because I'm trying to give credit, maybe you can remember, but somebody was talking about how do you encourage them to draw comb and it's giving them a small amount of food at one time instead of instead of So one of the you know to us one of the first things to getting bees to drop

Gary Drumright

cone is to have them they need that incentive.

Becky Masterman

Incentive.

Gary Drumright

If you take a full production hive that doesn't need any more cone, you can fit you can throw tons and tons of sugar on them. It's just and it's like it almost disappears sometimes. And they will draw you a little bit of cone.

Taking a smaller hive and they will draw cone out twice as fast with less expense.

Gigi Drumright

Now we have we also have a bucket feeder um it's so the base plate is actually the same base plate you just get the adapter ring on it. And then you put the bucket on. And the reason we do this you still got you still control the soil rate or the uh the number of holes, but we go to our apiaries every two weeks and if we have some hives at one of our apiaries we'll do.

Becky Masterman

I could see also sorry, I'm I'm just excited about this, but I could also see where I'd maybe use the jar for nukes and then I'd maybe use the buckets for bigger colonies.

Gary Drumright

It's it's quite the opposite.

Becky Masterman

Uh what?

Gary Drumright

It is quite the opposite.

Becky Masterman

You put jars on big colonies and noobs get the buckets? Okay, tell me why.

Gary Drumright

So on a full-size production colony, you know even after let's say we're heading after summer we've pulled our soup.

Becky Masterman

results.

Gary Drumright

We're putting food on them. We they have the weight there that they really need. We're just trying to maintain that weight.

Becky Masterman

Okay, okay.

Gary Drumright

We do not need to put that much on them. They will survive on and our goal is about half a gallon every two weeks. maintain the brood at that level and their weight.

And that's all we're really trying to do.

Becky Masterman

I want to ask if you've ever been through a Minnesota winter.

Gary Drumright

So we're not going to be able to do that.

Becky Masterman

I might want to switch them back.

Gary Drumright

You know, if you have just a month or so, yes, you want to eat a bucket at a little faster rate.

Becky Masterman

Right, yeah.

Gary Drumright

But you still don't want to be dumping it on them. You're trying to keep that social structure within the hive the way it was and not be changing it up and creating, you know, okay, we need more foragers because we got two gallons of sugar sitting out here. So we're trying to maintain that social structure.

Becky Masterman

I love the thought you've put about the biology. And it probably does make a difference depending upon what you're feeding. Like I don't I don't have a summer dirt that I have to feed through and so I would just have to maybe get that colony up to away from winter.

Gary Drumright

But you're right about our nukes? We will feed them more than we will our production hives.

Becky Masterman

We will 'cause that's we don't right.

Gary Drumright

And it's all about the economics of the sugar syrup. I mean it's costly to feed bees.

Gigi Drumright

Yeah.

Gary Drumright

And we try to keep that at a minimum.

Gigi Drumright

I love more than just economics too. It's it's all about nutrition. You know, we tell folks all the time that, you know, you can treat your bees, but if you're not treating them nutritionally and making sure their nutrition needs are matched, then it's well it's it's about well, economics is about overfeeding.

Gary Drumright

You can overfeed your bees just as easily as And then that's take up root production space too.

Becky Masterman

I have a question though. So you're feeding the colonies and then you want to come to the yard and you want to do an inspection. So you've got the external feeder on.

What's your process for taking it off and do you leave it on and just place the lid intact? You just take it off?

Gary Drumright

So our typical uh our typical feed period is every two weeks.

Becky Masterman

Okay.

Gary Drumright

So we'll we'll set the if we use a bucket, we want it to be gone in two weeks. So we'll set it until it's gone in two weeks. When we come back, it's empty.

We're taking these off. We can do our inspections if we need to. Most of the time during the dearth period, there's not much going on.

We're really not inspecting them. Uh in the fall. Yeah.

We're set for the winter. know that, you know, we're we're checking weights but we don't have to go in the hive to do that obviously. Okay.

Becky Masterman

Do you ever use the cover if like it's a if it's a robbing season, do you ever have to cover the opening? You well, the way we eliminate robbing is that

Gigi Drumright

Um like I said, if it's going into a dirt as soon as we pull honey, everybody gets a uh feeder at a slow rate because you know, you know, we just kind of rob them of their honey and they're a little upset by that, but by putting this on there, I call it we're passive.

Gary Drumright

So the robin aspects come in when you're when you're bucket feeding and you're throwing that bucket right on top of the hive and it leaks out for no reason. And the other way of inducing a robbing is these hive top feeders where you're pouring two or three gallons in them and you have all that surface area. They can sense that.

they smell it, they know it's there, they'll come to it. The way we're doing it here, we're keeping it contained in this small area. There's no bees out here trying to get at it or yellow jackets or orange or whatever the case may be because there's that gap.

Gigi Drumright

Okay, oh entrance feeders and boardman feeders, we're not real fa uh fans of those because you're a advertising the sugar source right at the entrance.

Becky Masterman

It's right here. So okay, I have one last question. How do people find out about you?

That was my question. Sorry. I'm just I'm just very excited.

Gigi Drumright

Well, we have a web page, uh brb feeder. com. Okay.

We also have a Facebook page, uh BRB feeder, same thing. Okay. And um that's about it.

And of course they can call us my cell phone numbers on the website. It's the same number I use for the honey business. Awesome.

And personal business, it doesn't matter, you know. So they're going to be a little bit more.

Jeff Ott

This is really innovative. I really like it and it just really f flows nicely into uh anybody's system who's using the hive top feeders and it works nice. I like the way it inner interchanges and you can use it either with the bucket feeder and or the jars.

Yeah. It's perfect.

Gigi Drumright

Yes sure. I hated feeding before this 'cause you know we were always like most jars and rusty lids and stuff. Now I all I have to do when we walk up to the apiary is first thing I can do is assess all the jar levels.

Right. And uh if they're they should be empty or almost empty but if somebody is not taking it for some reason then we had no it's an indicator to get right into the hive. But we don't even have to open.

I mean we cause there's not garbage up there. So basically we just have to give the jar a little twist to break the sugar seal and off we go to the truck, clean them with some bleach water, refill 'em and we're we're done. We can do a hundred and twenty of these easily in one day.

Oh and that's uh Gary says we spend any time driving between them ferries. Very cool.

Jeff Ott

Well thank you for sharing this with us today and with our listeners. I would encourage anybody to check it out, BRB feeder. Absolutely.

Thank you.

Gigi Drumright

Thank you so much.

Jeff Ott

Thank you guys.