Worse than that: last I used cling film I found strands buried between abdominal tergites of quite a few bees, and no amount of fiddling would free it.
exactly what i do
Sounds like Rory is quoting a pallet here too at £1199, tho we don't know the weight.
Invaluable Neil, thank you! Something tk keep my dad busy if I'm too crooked to do it. Incidentally, not taking good care of my bavk js the orecise reason I'm still awake at 3.26 and average 2-3hrs sleep - take care of yourselves everyone, please, I'm 36 and thought I was invincibleI think it is easy but I obviously don’t have your physical problems. IMO if you can get the weight of the fondant falling off the “step” to open the cut the slice can be severed by many light cuts. (I don’t use a serrated blade as I have always assumed it would make it harder as the serrations clog up but I have tried dipping the blade into water which made it easier, but messy)
Edit - I’ve just cut up 2 boxes of fondant - one using a serrated bread knife and one using a sharp carving knife. IMO the carving knife is better as it doesn’t snag in the fondant.
I use pallet wrap as it’s more robust (and cheaper) than cling film and I’ve never had bees take it into the brood box.
Having it already cut, makes it easy to just open up, reverse the crown board ( I have 2” ekes screwed to the upper side of my crown boards) uncover one side and place that onto a QX or sometimes directly onto the top bars as I want the bees to store it in the combs as easily as possible.
I only put it above the crown board for emergency use, stored in a takeaway box within a PIR insulated pocket which the bees can rob at any time they are active during the winter. They will not break cluster to forage above the crown board during very cold periods so it’s imperative to get the stores into the comb they are clustering on.
Edit. I’ve just thought - by having it prepared off site you can cajole/ press gang a friend, relative or even a small child into preparing it!
Mmmmm now there’s a thought.
Too expensive for the quantities I needed though sadly, so I've got just under 12.5kg blocks to split, have tried spades before and though rudimentary, it works, but would prefer something more like Neil's slick operation- means it's ready to go and I can see which colonies require more feeding and rake that into account in my queen breeding
A pallet of 88 x 12.5kg yes, but I've got a fair few leftover from last year, my colonies were extremely light on stores until the balsam finally came, so I was anticipating having to feed them through this past month and just continue through to get them upto winter weight. Looking less emergency but will still be a lot more food than I've ever had to feed in my home apiary of circa 70 colonies - the weather's just not allowed them to cross the valley onto the fell for the heather which is ordinarily both my main (and only) crop and most of their winter stores. Thank god for balsam!
start working on building up your core muscles supporting the spine, daily self physio (sometimes regularly throughout the day when the aches start) does help a lot. I found that beekeeping actually helped eventually and I now suffer a lot less in high beekeeping season than in the winter, It was during preparation for the 2012 Olympics that my back started to go - then quickly followed by a bad injury chasing smugglers in the Solent the following May (three prolapsed disks, maybe more by now, plus a compound wedge fracture) in 2013 I thought my beekeeping was more or less over, but assistance from one person I was mentoring and encouragement from SWMBO, my back is not the chronic illness that makes me worry about the future. In fact, the thing that gives me most gyp at extraction time is a gammy knee that noone can pinpoint the cause!!
I slipped a disc in my early 40s, it was a long, slow journey back to a semblance of health. Other factors saw me start horse riding lessons in my late 40s and later buying an Icelandic horse. Icelandics are a gaited breed with a motion peculiar to only a few breeds in the world. Their signature gait (the Tolt) is particularly comfortable to ride and creates a therapeutic movement in the lower spine. I had my mare for twenty years and together we rode miles and competed in our breed society shows.
I've 3 prolapsed discs, but apparently that's normal for anyone over 30 and shouldn't be causing me any pain. Truth be told, I think I ripped something in my sacroiliac/coccyx area and everything else is a result of that being off kilter. It sounded like velcro when it went and I kept working in a bookshop for 4yrs where the 5'6 owner refused to work because the counter gave her backache - I'm 6'3 so bending myself into a question mark and naively believing her when she said she was getting the counter raised has been pretty life-changing - we should all definitely place a lot more value on our health. I have spent thousands on physios and osteopaths etc, but my back goes into spasm/cramp either side of my spine when I try to work it out and MRI's show only normal damage. I already had posture that takes me from 6'3 to probably under 6' so I doubt that helps - hollow back, my dad has it too but he's pain free.
I've always wanted a donkey...... think I can use this as reasonable excuse to steal more of me parents garden?
My hubby suffered from a bad back in his 20s had a major operation and they wanted to do another. The physio said back stroke swimming was v good for building up supporting muscles and would help his condition a lot. Hubbie said he wasn’t a strong swimmer and didn’t have much time then and she said “learn and make time!”. He did and turned down the 2nd op. He’s now 40 years older and swims 3x a week for a mile. His back is pain free and strong. Recommend you try back stroke and stick at it.
We do that too - good for beekeeping, helps develop strong abs to support your back
That tends to suggest we are content to allow sugar in our honey along with hive detritus. Not something I would even want to consume.
Sounds as though it would work wonders tbh - I'm always nervous of crashing my head into the end of the pool though, and the Tyne where I'm at is more rock and rapids than swimmable
