Search results

Just had a call from my son. He received an offer of a PhD place at Oxford Uni this morning, working on a project in the field of organic chemistry. Hugely proud dad right now :D James

We had a customer in today who owns a restaurant business. We got talking about food etc. and he told me that it's easy to tell the difference between real and fake honey: you just need to put a dollop of it in a bowl and then cover it with water. The honey remembers the hexagon pattern that...

I've just seen a post on the FB page for a local village offering "pure honey" for £8/litre! I am sorely tempted to "have a word". James

Are SumUp and Zettle still the "providers of choice" for taking card payments and honesty box payments? Can either do payments for multiple items of different values (if we had a number of different items available via an honesty box, for example)? James

Gusts of well over 70mph forecast here for the weekend. I don't recall ever seeing that high before. I shall be taking some time tomorrow to go around and check that everything is strapped down well... James

HD Chemicals are selling OA at 20% off this weekend, plus a further 10% off the second if you order two (so it's marginally cheaper to buy 2x1.5kg rather than 3kg, for example). However, their standard price still appears to be about 18% higher than it was three months ago :( James

In the "Have your say" section of my slightly damp copy of BBKA News (for December) there's a piece about labelling including the location (Coety in this case, in Wales). It mentions that the local TSO thought that to be called Coety Honey, all the honey must specifically come from Coety. The...

Our Octavia estate suffered its third EGR valve failure a couple of months back. I was thinking of writing it off because the repair is about 75% of the value of the car, but in the end we decided to get it sorted because if it lasts another three years or so, the children will have left uni...

I somehow seem to have missed this up until now. https://unn.ua/en/news/eu-tightens-control-over-honey-imports-from-november-2024 Who is the "competent authority" in the UK, I wonder? And how will it be policed? It seems like there's a reasonable possibility of it making no difference...

My Thorne plastic honey settling "tank" is reaching the end of its life. The material is starting to degrade (one of the handles came away in my hand when I was extracting a few weeks back) and given that at this point it really doesn't owe me anything, I think it's about time I replaced it...

Last weekend I was shown a package of what appeared to be perfectly-drawn super comb containing no honey (nor any obvious signs bees had actually been anywhere near it). Ten combs, all nicely rectangular, with perfectly smooth uncapped faces. I've never seen anything like it before. It looked...

Yeah, that old chestnut :) Whilst I try to come up with a workable design for a labelling jig that I can bodge in the workshop or 3d print, what are people's thoughts on labelling hexagonal jars where the label is wider than one face of the jar? Label centred on a face? Label centered on an...

My son is getting himself organised to apply for PhD positions at the moment and as it's the first time he's had to write one, sent us his CV to cast an eye over. I got as far as this: "completing a Master’s project regarding asymmetric allylic alkylation at the α-amino position using...

I've never used these, and likely never will given that they're quite badly damaged. I thought they might be travel screens, but they have wax moth damage which seems unlikely on a travel screen. Any other ideas? James

Ok, so the walls look a bit on the thin side to me, and obviously it doesn't take National frames (I think it's Dadant?), but I feel that I must be missing something obvious that means this nuc box is so cheap. What is it? James

I've discovered that an InstantVap Compact fits quite neatly into a two-bottle Virgin Wines presentation box with the divider removed, but it doesn't feel like an ideal solution. Those of you with InstantVaps, what do you use to contain them during transport between sites when they may be hot...

Last night I sat in on a trustee meeting of the charity for whom I have been setting up an apiary over the last eighteen months or so. One of the trustees had been keeping the few jars of honey that didn't get sold at the local flower show in August and ended up selling them to the...

I'm amazed that in what is very much a rural "town" this generated any comment at all... https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/somerset-man-stunned-after-seeing-9598669 James

Ok, so there are a few bubbles in the one on the right, but it had only been in the jar a couple of minutes... The jar on the left is from the super immediately above the QX so perhaps more mid/late Spring and early Summer flowers. The jar on the right is from the super above it, perhaps...

I seem to see quite a few nuc boxes without runners for the frames. Any thoughts on whether they're desirable or not? James