Well those who predicted the demise of Winter in the nice Sunday afternoon about a fortnight ago are today proven wrong - it was pretty chilly out there today. In fact as the day went on the temperature fell and the wind really came around from the North East and I had a taste of the arctic there as it whipped around the drive and in the funnel between my house and the neighbours.
The day was again spent cleaning frames, rendering wax and filtering molten wax from the boiler into large blocks - although it started early as a customer arrived early (9am on a Sunday morning) to purchase some wax for candle making.
It turns out her father keeps bees in Finland - around 10-12 colonies generally but in some winters he has lost the lot which must be a bitter pill to swallow. She said that as a teenager the bees 'thing' wasn't cool but now she's returning to enjoy the hobby and wanted to start with candle making something he did when she was younger. I said I was intrigued to find out how short the Finnish season is - exceptionally I suspect - and after experiencing the wind-chill today I wouldn't want to be a colony of bees trying to survive a harsh Arctic winter for sure.
I'm pleased to report the repair to the large apimelter seems to be holding - a good job was done by a friend of a friend for a very reasonable price and we had a chat about the food industry equipment and he thought the could probably find some equipment that could be re-purposed for honey handling from other components used in other parts of the food industry including a screw press for water extraction instead of paying through the nose for a honey corkscrew press....It will be interesting to see what comes up.
And on the other repair front the main bee truck has had a week in the garage to have a thorough overhaul. It sounds better, drives better and handles better too. It wasn't cheap but over two years it actually is pretty reasonable. I had an upgraded clutch fitted to hopefully prevent the spring rattle that TDCi Landrovers suffer from along with a solid output shaft as the mileage suggested the two part original would be starting to wear ( and it was ). And two new shock absorbers on the rear, new headlight mounting units, and a full service and they even sorted out an annoying brake squeal and tightened up the handbrake - things I hadn't mentioned. Not bad for a 'general' garage rather than a 'specialist' Landrover garage.
Turning back to winter - according to the long range forecast the cold weather is with us until almost the end of the month...Spring is a fair few weeks away yet which gives me a bit more leeway in getting cleaned frames filled with foundation, some more boxes made, some more frames assembled and probably another trip around the apiaries to check on stores.
Have a good February !
S
The day was again spent cleaning frames, rendering wax and filtering molten wax from the boiler into large blocks - although it started early as a customer arrived early (9am on a Sunday morning) to purchase some wax for candle making.
It turns out her father keeps bees in Finland - around 10-12 colonies generally but in some winters he has lost the lot which must be a bitter pill to swallow. She said that as a teenager the bees 'thing' wasn't cool but now she's returning to enjoy the hobby and wanted to start with candle making something he did when she was younger. I said I was intrigued to find out how short the Finnish season is - exceptionally I suspect - and after experiencing the wind-chill today I wouldn't want to be a colony of bees trying to survive a harsh Arctic winter for sure.
I'm pleased to report the repair to the large apimelter seems to be holding - a good job was done by a friend of a friend for a very reasonable price and we had a chat about the food industry equipment and he thought the could probably find some equipment that could be re-purposed for honey handling from other components used in other parts of the food industry including a screw press for water extraction instead of paying through the nose for a honey corkscrew press....It will be interesting to see what comes up.
And on the other repair front the main bee truck has had a week in the garage to have a thorough overhaul. It sounds better, drives better and handles better too. It wasn't cheap but over two years it actually is pretty reasonable. I had an upgraded clutch fitted to hopefully prevent the spring rattle that TDCi Landrovers suffer from along with a solid output shaft as the mileage suggested the two part original would be starting to wear ( and it was ). And two new shock absorbers on the rear, new headlight mounting units, and a full service and they even sorted out an annoying brake squeal and tightened up the handbrake - things I hadn't mentioned. Not bad for a 'general' garage rather than a 'specialist' Landrover garage.
Turning back to winter - according to the long range forecast the cold weather is with us until almost the end of the month...Spring is a fair few weeks away yet which gives me a bit more leeway in getting cleaned frames filled with foundation, some more boxes made, some more frames assembled and probably another trip around the apiaries to check on stores.
Have a good February !
S
