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  1. BigAshW

    Manual Honey Filling Machine

    No it's motorised. This is the type of machine I use.
  2. BigAshW

    Manual Honey Filling Machine

    There is no hopper on my machine. I connect the bucket directly to the pump on the side. The honey is gravity fed to the pump. When I next jar up some honey I'll get pics to post here.
  3. BigAshW

    Manual Honey Filling Machine

    Please excuse the condition just pulled it out of the cupboard hasn't been used in a while. The issue I have is that the legs are not long enough to allow the hose to flex and so it's unstable. Plan is to either A) buy longer legs B) use a second upsidedown bucket as a stand feeding the...
  4. BigAshW

    Manual Honey Filling Machine

    I got one of the thornes style machines from eBay direct from china. Identical to the one thornes supply but at half the cost. I've adapted a bucket to feed the machine using furniture legs and a stainless steel boat water tank fitting. Although further work is needed as the legs are a bit too...
  5. BigAshW

    What did you do in the 'workshop' today

    Getting ready for harvest. Have added casters to the extractor legs one of which has a brake on. I'm hoping it will dampen out the vibrations allowing me to uncap the next batch whole it's spinning out.
  6. BigAshW

    sugar cost and when to buy

    Thanks for the tip. I'm at 30 hives now so will contact them.
  7. BigAshW

    sugar cost and when to buy

    I've been shopping around as thinking I'll use invert this year now I'm up on hive numbers. Cheapest at the moment looks like old castle farms. Need to work out how much I'll need per hive but certainly won't be feeding for a bit. The ivy flow is generally pretty good at my apiaries so will...
  8. BigAshW

    full length leather gauntlets ?

    Yep. Marigolds for me as well changed years ago and never looked back. I rarely get stung now unless I'm clumsy. If I have a colony that goes on the attack then that queen is marked for a rapid demise asap. I will also remove the drone brood if I have time to reduce those genetics heading out...
  9. BigAshW

    My own queens have defensive workers

    Good luck. It sounds like an expensive way to continue long term though. Do you have any opportunity to access a site further away from your apiary that you can get some of your own queen's mated? Would just need space for a couple of poly nucs.
  10. BigAshW

    My own queens have defensive workers

    I have an apiary that I refuse to mate queen's in as they always become nasty, so when I demaree I'll pull a nuc off the top box with a cell and take it to a better site and then use that queen to reintroduce. Unfortunately you can't control the drones around you without some cooperation with...
  11. BigAshW

    Honey prices on selling on three fronts.

    I'd love to add a jar of your honey to the collection but unfortunately home is in the opposite direction. 😭
  12. BigAshW

    Honey prices on selling on three fronts.

    I'm at the abbotsbury swanery In Dorset today and just picked up a jar for our collection. 454g for £11.
  13. BigAshW

    Honey prices on selling on three fronts.

    I haven't really felt the need to do this. There's still a healthy profit at £10 lb and I have lots of loyal customers who know exactly what they're getting. My biggest customer is the reseller so maybe if they are willing to move over to a smaller size then I'd make the shift.
  14. BigAshW

    Honey prices on selling on three fronts.

    I still sell on 227g and 454g jars. 227g at £6 or two for £10 454g at £10 I have one shop I supply 454g jars to unlabeled if its honey from their site and they want to sell under their own brand or labelled if it's from one of my other sites. Both I sell to them at £6.50 as they usually buy...
  15. BigAshW

    Virgins Vs cells

    I'm intending to have a go at queen rearing next year. So in my usual way I like to have a plan to start with despite knowing that the bees will of course completely ignore it. I have an old dartington hive that I've built a cloak board for to use as my cell raiser, over winter I plan to build...
  16. BigAshW

    First ever batch of mead underway

    I don't think mead minds sitting on the lees much so I'm not usually in a big rush to rack off the first batch although recipes vary and I've never used elderflower temperature varies according to yeast strain I believe but I always use Lalvin D47 so haven't really experienced any of the other...
  17. BigAshW

    First ever batch of mead underway

    That's one reason I mature for two years. Young mead can be very harsh in my experience so after primary fermentation I rack into a five gallon glass carboy and leave for two years before bottling.
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