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Poly Hive said:
Its the old story and its centuries old really.

Buy cheap and pay dear. Now where on the froum have I heard this story.....

It broke, it bent it didn't work......

I bought a load of seconds and now they won't fit.... ETC..... year after year.

PH
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Ah I should have said, the stainless one weren't cheap.... they were from a big screw wholesaler but I have found it with several suppliers, you have to be a bit careful with torquing up stainless as the heads can shear off.
 
Newbeeneil said:
I use stainless steel screws on the hives which don't cause the rust stains you get after a while with standard ones but the stainless ones are brittle. I regularly strip a head off them when over tightening.
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I always use stainless steel screws, I buy them with torx drive heads not Pozidrive - they don't stip out however much you tighten them.
 
To hope all 4 make it through the winter, then with a bit of luck I can do any splits as I go along. Hopefully make less mistakes and learn a bit more as I go along.

I have also got a small fortune of bits and pieces to prevent any costly purchases mid season. I now have several brood boxes to build, I plan to use all broods and not bother with supers where possible.

Things to do are buy a extractor, get a buckfast nuc. And I have one langstroth colony that needs some frames replacing as the foundation fell out when I caught the swarm so I plan to sort this out somehow at some point.

Fingers crossed I'm sure it will all be another fine catalogue of errors and a learning curve
 
Curly green fingers said:
Do you mean hex head screws jbm?
Click to expand...

don't know, possibly - correct name for them is torx drive whatever, keep forgetting to change bits in the workshop and wondering why my Pozi bit doesn't work!
 
My screws weren't stainless but certainly weren't cheap.

I've had 3 snap out of about 3000, my impact driver is a bit of a beast so I put it down to that.

My worry was that after them being outside for a few years, they would certainly snap, what with the movement in the joints.

Anyway, finished gluing, screwing nailing and filling (nearly).

c9c80fc57a2e4d1040e5c36315a0dda3.jpg


Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
 
My Plan is to work more effectively as time is always hard to find! Constantly thinking on the best way forward! Loads of boxes to steam and paint before the season gets started and even more to be put together, let alone frames and wax!!
Expansion is also on my to do list this year, but first I need to see how many get through this winter! If it's low losses then I will be very happy indeed. So far its looking very promising but English weather has a nasty habit of throwing something at you when you least expect!
So with loads of, ifs and buts thrown in, I'm hoping to expand lol
 
To work on more CSR project
 
lal5000 said:
I'm certainly no expert but when I used only screws, I couldn't get all the joints as tight as with nails and glue....
Click to expand...

You might want to spend an hour becoming a screw expert, there are lots of different kinds, especially the heads - very important for getting them tight!

Select a proper Star (or square) headed screw (not one that takes a flat screwdriver),
choose one for outside, must be stainless steel, NOT galvanized, etc.
there's different types of threading an such, they make a big difference, in how they bite the wood,
and also a small guide hole will help to prevent splitting without affecting the quality of the tightness.

From my experience a good screw is best (and as we all like belt and braces - glue as well).

... naturally it goes without saying that a good table saw helps as well, the edges must be as tight as possible, I've got a steady hand and good eye, but a table saw out classes my hand saw every time.
 
My plans have changed a bit, plenty of time to plan the season as recovering from a hernia operation. Will not be having any packages apart from what I have orders for, the sixty spare broods I have will go on hives at the rape as double brood to allow for colony's to be split 50/50 after, I have uk bred bucki queens ordered for these splits, that should give us around 170/180 colony's, this should hopefully give enough stock to supply existing customers.

The planned honey house has been put on hold till end of year, consolidation rather than the frantic expansion of the last few years.
 
A whole new chapter for me in my still newbie beekeeping life:

A new apiary! I have just moved my four hives there. Excellent outlook with good sunshine, and surrounded by much that is really promising. It's on the estate of a stately home with orchard, woods with many nectar bearing trees, meadows full of wild flowers, formal gardens which has been planted for pollinators for the last twenty years, even spring water feeding a wetland area. A dream I do believe for the bees, and certainly for me going there to manage them. Wow!

I hope to have increase from a couple of the colonies as I have another new apiary site available to me from September. This venue is in the surrounding grounds of a Victorian walled garden which is a high-end nursery business and restaurant. They are planting a wildflower meadow with ponds and have been looking out for a friendly beekeeper to complete the picture and supply them with their own honey to sell on-site.

Am I dreaming??

And more still! A friend of mine has a friend with a hill farm who is asking for bees for his heather come mid August …

All this is the best retirement gift ever. I will do my best to rise to these opportunities with the best beekeeping practice for the sake of the bees.
 

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Tom Jay, I have been living a similar dream since the end of last season. I have been offered so many sites for bees and they all seem to be in ideal positions.
The owners of these sites also are offering me sheds for storage and one site, like you, wants to sell my honey in their new shop.
I have also been asked to manage another 3 hives to join the two I looked after last year. The £2000 income from those will pay for most of my equipment purchases for this year.
I'm just loving my "retirement" 😀
 
Tom Jay said:
A whole new chapter for me in my still newbie beekeeping life:

A new apiary! I have just moved my four hives there. Excellent outlook with good sunshine, and surrounded by much that is really promising. It's on the estate of a stately home with orchard, woods with many nectar bearing trees, meadows full of wild flowers, formal gardens which has been planted for pollinators for the last twenty years, even spring water feeding a wetland area. A dream I do believe for the bees, and certainly for me going there to manage them. Wow!

I hope to have increase from a couple of the colonies as I have another new apiary site available to me from September. This venue is in the surrounding grounds of a Victorian walled garden which is a high-end nursery business and restaurant. They are planting a wildflower meadow with ponds and have been looking out for a friendly beekeeper to complete the picture and supply them with their own honey to sell on-site.

Am I dreaming??

And more still! A friend of mine has a friend with a hill farm who is asking for bees for his heather come mid August …

All this is the best retirement gift ever. I will do my best to rise to these opportunities with the best beekeeping practice for the sake of the bees.
Click to expand...

I hope it's a long and happy retirement. What a stunning place!!
 
I start my evening classes by defining beekeeping as:

The art of guiding the colony to fulfil their expectations to the mutual successful outcome for the bees and their keeper.

PH
 
Poly Hive said:
I start my evening classes by defining beekeeping as:

The art of guiding the colony to fulfil their expectations to the mutual successful outcome for the bees and their keeper.

PH
Click to expand...

You remind me of a comment a retired beekeeper made when she heard I was starting:

"Remember, Tom, the bees don't read the books." To think that back when she said that to me I didn't get what she meant.
 
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