days of yore

Good morrow Dear Reader.

I hope the sun has risen with you and your hay rick is rat free, your cow is managing to keep producing milk from her one remaining udder from the dried straw you've been feeding her over the 'driest summer since '76' and your well hasn't run dry just yet.

Why the evocation of days gone by ? Well it does seem to me that with every passing day we appear to be coming closer to calamity day, judgement day, call it what you will. Electricity being the item foremost on my mind, as I use the stuff to extract honey, warm wax, steam clean frames, warm honey to bottle it and do a lot of this by the light of a bulb. How in the name of all that's holy will an 'average' family of 4 be able to pay, from after tax income, a fuel bill of £3.5/£4.5/£5.5k over the coming year when they are used to paying (a fair price) £500-£750 a year for their energy needs.

Even if we decided to stop supporting the Ukrainians in the war (and I'm not supporting that for one minute) the sanctions would remain and the price of gas on the world market would remain stubbornly high as long as the Nord Stream pipeline remained closed, and other pipelines diverted to 'favourable' countries. And one doesn't just build an ACME unfolding nuclear power station like they do in the cartoons do they ??

I was talking to my father when he was helping on a honey stall at the weekend (helping is actually pushing it - he had accompanied my mother to the event so he and she could go on a river trip and he was merely resting his legs in a folding camping chair at the back of my stall) and he said that for the past 40 years - as long as he'd been married (actually its 56 years but who's counting) he and mum had said we needed an energy policy that didn't pander to the CND (at the time) and the non-nuclear brigade and we should have built two new reactors for every one coming to the end end of it's life using the British designed PWR reactors that were proven and safe. I have to say I couldn't agree more.

Then a chance conversation in the week with an elderly ex-engineer who had a good rant about the anti-fracking brigade saying that they (and the media) conveniently (or ignorantly) ignored the fact that north sea oil was largely extracted using the same technique after the initial surge of oil flowing from a new well. The fact you have to 'force' it from the ground using a method not unlike hydraulic fracturing, and has been done safely for 50+ years, has been completely overlooked.

Going back to my own energy use - having had more than my fair share of troubles extracting this season (two broken extractor speed controllers) and a bee shed that is increasingly not bee proof as the wood warps and flexes with age, resulting in many midnight oil burning sessions to extract the next batch of supers, my mind was cast back to the 'old days' when honey wasn't spun, it was cut into squares and put into oil cloth and packaged in little cardboard boxes (no polythene cases or windows then) or the entire crop was crushed and strained using, one presumes, muslin or sacking, and bottled in early glass bottles with cork lids, all during the day in a lean-to full of robbing bees (no electricity to work by night) and then a big fire and cauldron to boil down and melt the wax for candles and industry.

I sometimes wonder when people hark back to the 'good old days' whether they were 'as good' for beekeepers anyway. I know I'd rather have a proper extraction system that can spin a few supers at a time in a bee-free environment and have the ability to warm/strain honey as required into clean glass jars with secure lids or buckets for longer term storage. I certainly wouldn't want the faff of rendering just wild comb, even if it were from just a few hives (skeps) and wonder how some of these 'modern' natural beekeepers put up with the inevitable mess, and lets face it, waste of honey, in the processing of the comb.

I suppose the only benefit is they do it in the spring after their colony has died out and they render some honey from some dark combs left in the hives so the bees won't find the honey....

On the stall yesterday a 'know it all' 'the bbka says it isn't allowed' beekeeper who has 3 hives said I can't label my honeycomb (sections and cut comb) as 'Raw' or the chunk honey as 'Raw'. (even though neither product is strained or processed in the conventional way). I said I could do with it as I liked as it nicely surmised the state of the comb, and I didn't claim other run/set jarred honey was 'raw' as that had been through more filtering etc etc. Her lips pursed and I could tell she would be 'having conversations' with well known local beekeepers in her group as she name checked them. I couldn't give a scoobies...This year I've seen and heard more absolute codswallop and utter excrement being spouted by ever more 'experts' who've 'done all the exams' and then it transpires that they have 2 hives and one died last year and the other has swarmed and they have managed to take 19lb of honey off the total.

Experts.

Yeah right.

Yet all the BBKA can do is raise petitions and make political rumblings and align themselves with all sorts of organisations who aren't beekeepers and simply want the beekeeping shilling to fund their own subscription services. They don't understand the real merits of beekeeping to provide pollination services or management of colonies to provide a proper surplus of honey, let alone manage the health of their bees - I shook my head in disbelief when I saw their press release about thymol earlier in the year.

As for my own season - record honey crop and still 4 apiaries to clear which I need to do before the ivy starts (it's about to burst into flower about 4 weeks early) and plans afoot for next year. Beekeeping certainly helps take your mind off the problems of the world and oneself, now if only I could get a bee-proof extraction facility sorted this week !


KR


Somerford

 

[Erichalfbee]

Good morrow Dear Reader.

On the stall yesterday a 'know it all' 'the bbka says it isn't allowed' beekeeper who has 3 hives said I can't label my honeycomb (sections and cut comb) as 'Raw' or the chunk honey as 'Raw'. (even though neither product is strained or processed in the conventional way). I said I could do with it as I liked as it nicely surmised the state of the comb, and I didn't claim other run/set jarred honey was 'raw' as that had been through more filtering etc etc. Her lips pursed and I could tell she would be 'having conversations' with well known local beekeepers in her group as she name checked them. I couldn't give a scoobies...This year I've seen and heard more absolute codswallop and utter excrement being spouted by ever more 'experts' who've 'done all the exams' and then it transpires that they have 2 hives and one died last year and the other has swarmed and they have managed to take 19lb of honey off the total.

Experts.

Yeah right.

Yet all the BBKA can do is raise petitions and make political rumblings and align themselves with all sorts of organisations who aren't beekeepers and simply want the beekeeping shilling to fund their own subscription services. They don't understand the real merits of beekeeping to provide pollination services or management of colonies to provide a proper surplus of honey, let alone manage the health of their bees - I shook my head in disbelief when I saw their press release about thymol earlier in the year.

As for my own season - record honey crop and still 4 apiaries to clear which I need to do before the ivy starts (it's about to burst into flower about 4 weeks early) and plans afoot for next year. Beekeeping certainly helps take your mind off the problems of the world and oneself, now if only I could get a bee-proof extraction facility sorted this week !


KR


Somerford

AMEN

 

[Skinfaxi]

Nicola Tesla had the answers with free electrcity generators ,but the bosses could not have that. Because everything must have a meter on it and cost the slave his life force.
The bosses raided his house and stole all his blueprints robbing humanity of this geniuses gift to us.

 

[The Poot]

This made me laugh and feel sadness…
It seems the UK has access to oil and gas aplenty, but to bow down to global pressures we have followed the “sustainable “ route.
It seems the more freely available power (wind and solar) we harness, the more expensive it becomes.
It‘s all part of global pressures to “level up” - except it‘s levelling down.
As more and more families find they can’t afford the new cost of living they will be driven fully into the power of large corporations and the state.
As you say, the day of reckoning is heading our way.
”You will own nothing and be happy” - World Economic Forum.

 

[JamezF]

It seems the more freely available power (wind and solar) we harness, the more expensive it becomes.

There seems to have been a fair bit of coverage in the media recently suggesting that electricity generated from wind and solar would be significantly cheaper than from gas, but for the fact that the rules require that all electricity is purchased from generators at the same price regardless of source. I have no idea if that's correct or not, but if so it seems a pretty strange way to go about things.

James

 

[Skinfaxi]

Hello
How can you build a future based on 1850 technology. Peaple seem to think the earth is a never ending supply of silver coltan cobalt and other minirals tbat are needed to make all these things. Aswell at the moment micro chip shortages. In my thought its the military industrial complex sucking up world supply and is useing up the chips for the future robot army. Also black rock the company owns most corporate entities called by common peaple country. With the death of Elisabeth the Great , peaples own cancelation of Magna Carta and Bill of Rights. The reserve banks are creating curency and buying up everything houses and anything else. Banks are buying up properties with counterfited currency. Not fair hey. We have to produce bleed and sweet for our bread but the socialiat fascist state do as they please. Big changes are on the way. The world corporate state will get bigger. freadom is all but DEAD cauae peaple failed to take measures . Pasified populus ,sheap to the slaughter. Everyone will fall into poverty unless they have special budies in the state office. Good luck

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Hello
How can you build a future based on 1850 technology. Peaple seem to think the earth is a never ending supply of silver coltan cobalt and other minirals tbat are needed to make all these things. Aswell at the moment micro chip shortages. In my thought its the military industrial complex sucking up world supply and is useing up the chips for the future robot army. Also black rock the company owns most corporate entities called by common peaple country. With the death of Elisabeth the Great , peaples own cancelation of Magna Carta and Bill of Rights. The reserve banks are creating curency and buying up everything houses and anything else. Banks are buying up properties with counterfited currency. Not fair hey. We have to produce bleed and sweet for our bread but the socialiat fascist state do as they please. Big changes are on the way. The world corporate state will get bigger. freadom is all but DEAD cauae peaple failed to take measures . Pasified populus ,sheap to the slaughter. Everyone will fall into poverty unless they have special budies in the state office. Good luck

I'm thinking of forming a company to make and sell tinfoil hats

 

[user 20297]

There seems to have been a fair bit of coverage in the media recently suggesting that electricity generated from wind and solar would be significantly cheaper than from gas, but for the fact that the rules require that all electricity is purchased from generators at the same price regardless of source. I have no idea if that's correct or not, but if so it seems a pretty strange way to go about things.

James

The BBC "explained" all of that the other day. The cheaper background source of nuclear generation is bolstered by relatively inexpensive renewable energy, when available. Gas is used to generate the shortfall between this bulk of our needs and our actual consumption.
Just like children having to accept something is so because "Daddy says so", the BBC glibly stated that all electricity must be paid for at the same price as the highest cost of that day's generation.
It doesn't actually make sense, other than to the recipients of our money, and it's another reason why the energy supply and other primary industries should be run for public benefit, not for private profit.

 

[oxnatbees]

Having once worked in the nuclear power industry:

No form of power is problem free. One needs a mix. The solar panels on my roof obviously only work in sunlight, and I can see they only generate 1%(!) of peak power on an overcast winter's day.

The issue with gracking, to my mind is twofold. Neither of these is significant under the North Sea:
1. Contamination of the water table (it's not just water they use) - after a couple of decades people will find their wells etc are toxic. Fracking companies / directors long gone and unaccountable;
2. Microquakes - seem to be a real thing - I'm unsure how serious this is

Nuclear's main problems are more subtle:
1. There is too much money sloshing around (nukes are expensive). When mistakes ARE made no one can afford to admit them;
2. Because it takes longer to build one than a Parliamentary term thete is no political payoff to building them so politicians have kicked the can down the road. Crucially this means no one enters the field any more - no career in a dying industry - and we have lost the skills base to build them. Remaining options are China Russia, EDF all of which have Issues. America seems to be concentrating on micronukes which have been promised for decades, don't hold your breath.

So a grim tale with no happy ending. There's no obvious quick fix for British energy - and we're in a better position than most countries.

 

[Antipodes]

How much has the annual power bill gone up recently in the UK?

 

[user 20297]

How much has the annual power bill gone up recently in the UK?

Last week, the 96 year old woman, who lives across from me, had a notification from her electricity supplier that her current payment of, £267 per month has to increase to £795 with immediate effect. She has a tiny house with oil fired heating and lives alone. They were taking into account the actual and the predicted, future price increases. The calculation stated that if this didn't happen, in twelve months' time she would owe them almost £9000. That last part did not seem to add up, but it seems prices will have risen at least threefold from late 2021 rates by April 2023.

 

[enrico]

But to be fair we look at the past through rise tinted glasses.
Before gas and electric heating my family lived in one room heated by a coal fire. There was no other heat in the bedrooms or anywhere. If you did the same today and heated one room and all lived in it your heating bills would be slashed. We expect warm houses, we have knocked all the internal walls out, we expect a machine to wash our dishes and our clothes. Yes, we could go back to the days of yore. But I don't think many of us would like it!

 

[user 20297]

But to be fair we look at the past through rise tinted glasses.
Before gas and electric heating my family lived in one room heated by a coal fire. There was no other heat in the bedrooms or anywhere. If you did the same today and heated one room and all lived in it your heating bills would be slashed. We expect warm houses, we have knocked all the internal walls out, we expect a machine to wash our dishes and our clothes. Yes, we could go back to the days of yore. But I don't think many of us would like it!

I've also lived in those days of yore, and I've scraped Jack Frost off the inside of the bedroom window as I'm sure that many of us have done. The past was not entirely a nice place The design of our houses and the style in which we live has no relationship with the sudden leap in our utility bills.
Putin is blamed for starting the steep upwards trend in fuel prices, but our Goverment has the choice to moderate the disproportionate gains this has meant for energy extraction companies with strong UK links. Instead they intend to dull our pain, by enabling us to pay those bills more easily for the present, and then by clawing back that money in increased personal taxation and reduction in public services in the future.

Depending on where you find your statistics, the recent, so-called "windfalls" of multiple billions of pounds that have been gained by energy companies appear to be well matched to the amount of public borrowing needed in order to delay a widescale crash in our personal budgets. Effectively, the Government is simply underwriting the oil companies' potential losses ishould we all decide to or are unable to pay.

With her electricity costing over £700 per month, I know that my neighbour, whose State pension is unlikely to be more than £1000 per month is still going to be bankrupted very quckly unless she stays in the one room (rather than three) and turns every non-essential appliance and light off permanently; without her TV, she has nothing; she's a 96 year old Elizabeth in a very different situation from her more famous ex-namesake.

 

[Antipodes]

Last week, the 96 year old woman, who lives across from me, had a notification from her electricity supplier that her current payment of, £267 per month has to increase to £795 with immediate effect. She has a tiny house with oil fired heating and lives alone. They were taking into account the actual and the predicted, future price increases. The calculation stated that if this didn't happen, in twelve months' time she would owe them almost £9000. That last part did not seem to add up, but it seems prices will have risen at least threefold from late 2021 rates by April 2023.

I'm incredulous......
Here we are about 90 per cent hydro, as long as it rains, then the rest wind. Prices are increasing and some report going to bed early to stay warm but that increase you report is staggering.

 

[user 20297]

The increases in electricity prices in the UK is literally incredible, and everyone except our Government, finds it completely abnormal and unacceptable.

 

[user 20297]

From Wikipedia, "By 2019 renewable electricity generation was 30,528 GWh, over 90% of Scotland's gross electricity consumption (33,914 GWh)"
Renewable sources generate ove 25% of UK electricity needs.

 

[Skinfaxi]

I'm thinking of forming a company to make and sell tinfoil hats

Can you make one for bee suits

 

[B_north]

Holly heck!!! that is a lot of money for power. We pay about $200 canadian a month ( I believe that is $132 pounds) Frigg. ETA: we run a cattle farm with stock tank heaters running outside at -30C and a chicken house minimally heated, along with tractors that need to be plugged in, and a garage to heat. So IMO our power consumption is way above that of an elderly lady.

It doesn't actually make sense, other than to the recipients of our money, and it's another reason why the energy supply and other primary industries should be run for public benefit, not for private profit.

Funny we have the right wing complaining about our Provincial govt. owned Power, Telephone and Car insurance, apparently private is better. And yet our fees are a pittance compared to others and SGI ( the govt. car insurance) gives back money if their profits exceed a certain amount. Last year we got $100 per vehicle back, and that was not the first time.

 

[user 20297]

Holly heck!!! that is a lot of money for power. We pay about $200 canadian a month ( I believe that is $132 pounds) Frigg. ETA: we run a cattle farm with stock tank heaters running outside at -30C and a chicken house minimally heated, along with tractors that need to be plugged in, and a garage to heat. So IMO our power consumption is way above that of an elderly lady.


Funny we have the right wing complaining about our Provincial govt. owned Power, Telephone and Car insurance, apparently private is better. And yet our fees are a pittance compared to others and SGI ( the govt. car insurance) gives back money if their profits exceed a certain amount. Last year we got $100 per vehicle back, and that was not the first time.

All of that will be found very surprising by UK readers. But the political climate and the public understanding of economics is such that people have been conditioned to look for a catch in any alternative to the status quo. You can always declare that such arrangements won't transfer from other countries or political constitutions.
In the UK, the constant implication we sense is that privately owned business operates most efficiently. The actual fact is that politicians enable any opportunity for profit to be exploited for private gain.
When I was a kid, the phone system, postal service, water supply and sewerage, railways, electricity network.....all essential services were publicly owned. Many billions of public, man/woman hours and pounds had brought them to a state which allowed us to make economical use of them. We are now encouraged to look inwards and to admire our British way of doing things and scowl at the rest of the world. I suspect that the European part of the world, at least, looks at us with bewilderment.
Long live the King.

 

[Murox]

That was a measured response. The little britain island mentality has long been fostered by successive political parties who seem to depend on imagined, manufactured “enemies” to legitimise their actions and deflect from their intended path.