Affordable prewired assembled frames?

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I have a few of Murray’s frames and have had a few staples start to pull out of the head of the side bars if it’s in a very propolising hive.
Issue has been addressed.

Our bees here are very sparse propolisers and its an issue (the top bars coming off) we do not met a lot......but its an easy fix, and now with the side staple too all new stock should be fine. We also had the maker increase the staple length...for some reason they sometimes used shorter staples than specified.

To the issue or 'robust' handling. I used the term carefully instead of 'rough handling'. Rough can break anything...but in this case its more about rapid lifting of the top bars without pre loosening them, or shock loads coming on when the frame is heavy with honey... Everyone handl;es them differently and have different (such as heavy propolisers) circumstances. Should be better for all from now on.
 
Issue has been addressed.

Our bees here are very sparse propolisers and its an issue (the top bars coming off) we do not met a lot......but its an easy fix, and now with the side staple too all new stock should be fine. We also had the maker increase the staple length...for some reason they sometimes used shorter staples than specified.

To the issue or 'robust' handling. I used the term carefully instead of 'rough handling'. Rough can break anything...but in this case its more about rapid lifting of the top bars without pre loosening them, or shock loads coming on when the frame is heavy with honey... Everyone handl;es them differently and have different (such as heavy propolisers) circumstances. Should be better for all from now on.
However..had an amusing e3xchange with a guy ordering some block wax yesterday..........just shows everyone thinks differently. Its a free world..why not.

Asked the price of the frames...saw some sitting here ready for a customers and when told declared them far too expensive.
He buys bulk frames in the sales, seconds, at 50p a frame and hand nails them all up. He then has a little hand mould and makes his own foundation, so the foundation is free. (Said the man paying me 14.00 kg for 100 kg of wax) So his frames only cost him 50p each. Having seen his very thick wax I reckon at 14.00 Kg he must be getting close to 1.00 for the wax. So around 1.50 with zero in other costs (although he still insists its only 50p)........in reality that's certainly well cheaper than us..ONLY if your labour is valued at zero.

I prefer the 'IAST' method of evaluating the worth of doing these menial tasks. Keep busy, Make sure you have plenty of these little tasks you MUST do, the beekeeper is never idle, cannot spare time for other things, and the job expands to fit the time available. IAST = Ikea Avoidance Strategic Tasks
Only important if you have a partner who likes these trips into purgatory and wants you to go too.
 
Issue has been addressed.

Our bees here are very sparse propolisers and its an issue (the top bars coming off) we do not met a lot......but its an easy fix, and now with the side staple too all new stock should be fine. We also had the maker increase the staple length...for some reason they sometimes used shorter staples than specified.

To the issue or 'robust' handling. I used the term carefully instead of 'rough handling'. Rough can break anything...but in this case its more about rapid lifting of the top bars without pre loosening them, or shock loads coming on when the frame is heavy with honey... Everyone handl;es them differently and have different (such as heavy propolisers) circumstances. Should be better for all from now on.
Thanks Murray, it’s only happened a few times
 
Issue has been addressed.

Our bees here are very sparse propolisers and its an issue (the top bars coming off) we do not met a lot......but its an easy fix, and now with the side staple too all new stock should be fine. We also had the maker increase the staple length...for some reason they sometimes used shorter staples than specified.

To the issue or 'robust' handling. I used the term carefully instead of 'rough handling'. Rough can break anything...but in this case its more about rapid lifting of the top bars without pre loosening them, or shock loads coming on when the frame is heavy with honey... Everyone handl;es them differently and have different (such as heavy propolisers) circumstances. Should be better for all from now on.

We've not had a one pull out, but then I tend to be quite careful & generally only pull the middle frames.
 
I'm intrigued as to why you don't use crimpers?

After talking with Murray about this we srarted using pins.
It seems to me comparing brand new frames that over time & under tension crimped wire straightens out and looses tension,
While pinned wires don't.
 
Just spotted this thread while looking for something else. Not entirely comfortable posting this as its seems a bit like advertising but just want to answer the questions raised in the thread.

Yes. all out frames are horizontally wired. The few vertical ones are when we do a special for a customer who orders them that way. Its the international standard way to work, standard UK frames are overelaborate and fiddly, and using wired foundation is both expensive and less robust. The V on the sidebars is not required and very rare to find outside the UK. Its two more cuts on the part and adds a few pence for no gain and also raises the spectre of misassembly especially with non grooved sidebars.. The V in mixed directions is a proper pest.....

The origin of doing them this way is for our own use...............but they are strong beasts of frames that will last a lifetime... and yes..if happy nailing up pine frames, possibly seconds, you can do it cheaper or far cheaper...but we pay staff to do all that for you so its not like for like..and our main target is the bee farmer to whom time IS money. Some of the biggest in the land are getting them from us, usually, but not always, waxed and hive ready. We do them in full loads, so if buying for ourselves why not offer them to others.

Soda boil them after you carefully cut out the comb and rewax with the correct size of foundation (not expensive). we tension them with drawing pins rather than crimpers.

Yes, shipping costs.........we keep the prices as sharp as we can so don't include shipping and if you can get cheaper carriage then you can have them picked up...we only charge the carriage at cost..no margin on shipping.

Website will be going live very soon and our range will all be there. Frames and wax, boxes, bees and queens.

GG went to the vertical wired frames from another maker almost immediately after starting with us.....that fine. I have no beef with him for that..its whatever you prefer. We don't really like vertical wired BS broods (ours are mostly Smith) as it can pull the tops and bottoms in if kept tensioned...best pulling on the short side as it bows in less...but vertical wiring is often not tensioned. The new stock now also has an extra horizontal staple in under the lug as a few people reported the top bars coming loose under robust handling.

A few still keep SN1 style frames in their supers with castellations, and although these are NOT our preference we are now offering these too.

Apologies to those who might be annoyed by a commercial type posting. Happy to pay a sponsor fee.
.
Any chance of picking some up on your way down the A74/M6 in spring to save shipping? Cheers
 
I'm intrigued as to why you don't use crimpers?
AQctually have various ways...bvut a pin for sure is most common. Once they get a lot of slack we take one anchor out....restretch the wire by pulling it thropugh with pliars, re anchor it, and twist off the surplus. Might make some simple videos for the website. We used very springy stainless stell...its not all that receptive to crimpers. But in the end its whatever you prefer. We have crimpers here but none of our staff elect to use them.
 
Have always preferred to use (frame)pins or to re-tighten, straight uncrimped wire just seems preferable to me. I did try wire crimpers a few years back thinking it would be a great time saver but found the only ones sold in the UK (up to recently) were/are pathetic excuses for tools, uncomfortably small and awkward to use in my experience however, I do now have an impressively chunky wooden framed crimper, think it's a Chinese important, which is a real pleasure to use. But I still prefer to not have the wire crimped so don't tend to use it.
 
Interesting guys. I've gone the other way, starting initially wiring up with with pins and other methods, but these days use pliers to pull the wire through fairly tightly (Australian made stainless steel wire, about .34/.35 mm) and then crimpers once nailed/anchored and the excess tag snapped off.
 

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