Ross Rounds?

[jenkinsbrynmair]

In fairness there’s a couple of very good local ones, there’s even been a couple open. Many obviously shut years ago with the surge in supermarkets, but those that stuck it out and improved appear to be doing well. We are also lucky enough to have a good proper wet fish shop.

We had a superb wet fish shop in Amanford the nearest town centre three miles away), Tesco, when they moved in made a particular point of closing him down.
When I was a kid Amanford had two quality butchers in the town centre plus a proper butchery department in both the Coop and Finefare (both gone years ago), now one of the town centre butchers has closed, the economic downturn locally did for him, the other butcher (established over a century ago but changed hand twice in the last 20 years) is not really a butcher in the true sense any more, it's a twenty mile round trip for me to get to a decent butcher now.
But we didn't need to go to Amanford for a decent butcher, we had a proper butcher's shop attached to the coop opposite our shop on the village square, my grandfather's cousin Stanley Thomas (they'd been butchers since the early 1800's) had a butcher's shop just around the corner, and there was also another two butchers just a mile or so up the road. When Stanley retired my father also ran a butchery section in our shop (plenty of relatives to help him train up) all gone now.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

The farming program was very good yesterday morning, they were at one of our company sites in Shropshire, It was quite disappointing to hear that there are only forty odd master butchers left in the UK.

 

[Jimmy]

Saw these and thought the min pani tartes wooden rings at 8, 10 or 12 cm diameter might be a plastic ring alternative. As ericbeaumont notes the raised notches to support the lid might be a challenge.



Found them on the bakerybits website.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

The 10 cm may work.
I have considered removing the notch’s as i‘m having a custom cutter made to cut the rounds out, packaging is the issue either way though.

 

[ericbeaumont]

plastic ring alternative

What a find, Jimmy!

The 10 cm may work.

Only RR ref. I have to hand states that rings are 4 x 1.5", which equates to 10.16cm x 3.81cm, although bakerybits 10cm comes to 3.87". The cocottes may work for cut comb.

custom cutter made to cut the rounds out

How would that work, HH? Can't visualise it.

I've emailed RR to ask whether they've considered replacing plastic rings or lids with wood.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

What a find, Jimmy!


Only RR ref. I have to hand states that rings are 4 x 1.5", which equates to 10.16cm x 3.81cm, although bakerybits 10cm comes to 3.87". The cocottes may work for cut comb;


How would that work, HH? Can't visualise it.

I've emailed RR to ask whether they've considered replacing plastic rings or lids with wood.

I measured the rings I have at home and they are exactly 10cm, I will speak/ request some samples of the bakery rings in the new year, and report back on here.

The cutter. I was just considering that if it was made maybe a couple of mm smaller than the diameter of the hole in the frame, would the bees draw the comb out just to fill the holes again, or would they go wild.
We do our cut comb this way, cut the rectangle out and give the frames back to be drawn again.

 

[JohnRB]

I got my Maisemore Ross Round box yesterday as a Christmas present. First impressions are of a very solid, well made box. My only worry is everything is quite tight - add some random wax and propolis and it might be quite interesting getting the frames out.

Other makes I have seen have springs that compress the frames together, but this just uses a board squeezed in at the end to hold everything in place. Hope it works

Can't wait to try it out. My thought is to get them to draw (or start to draw) the wax during the rape flow, then remove it until the main flow.

 

[ericbeaumont]

to draw (or start to draw) the wax during the rape flow, then remove it until the main flow.

How about filling them on an OSR flow? The comb would be sliceable and eaten with a good blue cheese; might be a hit.

Sometimes I get several honeys in a comb - even ivy - and tell customers to enjoy their edible calendar.

 

[Ian123]

How about filling them on an OSR flow? The comb would be sliceable and eaten with a good blue cheese; might be a hit.

Sometimes I get several honeys in a comb - even ivy - and tell customers to enjoy their edible calendar.

They could alternatively suck/chew on a sugar cube

 

[ericbeaumont]

working with a packaging company to produce a food safe cardboard ring to replace the plastic

plastic ring alternative

Update today from Ross Rounds in the US, in response to my email late last year asking whether RR have considered alternative materials to plastic:

Thank you Eric for your email.

We have been watching for alternate materials that can be extruded like plastic that would be more eco friendly. The plastic we use can be recycled and with a little care, probably can be cleaned and reused if the beekeeper is so inclined. There are many challenges with changing materials and many factors to consider and we need to ensure a change will meet those requirements.

Thanks for thinking of us. This is something we are watching.

 

[plain_hunt]

I get most of our supplies for them from maisi. We produce around 850/1000 @ year, Borage/wildflower and Heather. Seems not the demand their used too be as so many have jumped on the bandwagon, there is still nearly 700 in our freezers.
We used to get a good premium, but now on a par with cut comb.
Currently working with a packaging company to produce a food safe cardboard ring to replace the plastic.

Did you get anywhere with the replacement rings?

 

[Mabee]

I measured the rings I have at home and they are exactly 10cm, I will speak/ request some samples of the bakery rings in the new year, and report back on here.

The cutter. I was just considering that if it was made maybe a couple of mm smaller than the diameter of the hole in the frame, would the bees draw the comb out just to fill the holes again, or would they go wild.
We do our cut comb this way, cut the rectangle out and give the frames back to be drawn again.

Did you try these?

 

[ericbeaumont]

Did you get anywhere with the replacement rings?

report back on here.

Yes, would be good to have an update.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

Yes, would be good to have an update.

At the moment the rounds went onto the reserve list of things to do.
A lot changed this year. My now ex job came to an end and I made the decision to push the numbers and make beefarming my full time occupation, so then came the Staffing questions. Wendy was 50% through her masters degree and working on her final dissertation so I did not expect her to help with any field work, but she did take two weeks off for the two Borage moves and the DASH course alongside rearing queens & nucs, which to give credit, she has done a fantastic job with over a 150 nucs having been promoted into full boxes and around a hundred, many with our own queens into winter.
I employed two female staff, one lasted two weeks, the other, two months, neither really understood we are farmers & work outdoors unfortunately.
So most of the year on my own, but it's been one of our best years ever, all the crap from the last two years is a bad memory and I could focus on the important things.
We have a group of really supportive landowners who are also pushing for us to grow in numbers, two of them in particular, one being our landlord and the other allows us use of a dry barn for box storage.

I am still extracting and started a youngster a month ago and he is fantastic, but the sump is causing an issue and slowing us down significantly..

We have moved our printing requirements to a company in Welshpool and they are going to progress the cardboard rings for us.
Apologies for the long response.

 

[Newbeeneil]

At the moment the rounds went onto the reserve list of things to do.
A lot changed this year. My now ex job came to an end and I made the decision to push the numbers and make beefarming my full time occupation, so then came the Staffing questions. Wendy was 50% through her masters degree and working on her final dissertation so I did not expect her to help with any field work, but she did take two weeks off for the two Borage moves and the DASH course alongside rearing queens & nucs, which to give credit, she has done a fantastic job with over a 150 nucs having been promoted into full boxes and around a hundred, many with our own queens into winter.
I employed two female staff, one lasted two weeks, the other, two months, neither really understood we are farmers & work outdoors unfortunately.
So most of the year on my own, but it's been one of our best years ever, all the crap from the last two years is a bad memory and I could focus on the important things.
We have a group of really supportive landowners who are also pushing for us to grow in numbers, two of them in particular, one being our landlord and the other allows us use of a dry barn for box storage.

I am still extracting and started a youngster a month ago and he is fantastic, but the sump is causing an issue and slowing us down significantly..

We have moved our printing requirements to a company in Welshpool and they are going to progress the cardboard rings for us.
Apologies for the long response.

Great to hear things are going better, good luck!

 

[Erichalfbee]

it's been one of our best years ever, all the crap from the last two years is a bad memory and I could focus on the important things.

That’s wonderful news. Onward and upward xx

 

[ericbeaumont]

reserve list

Yep, a familiar item; glad to hear you're doing well.

 

[Mabee]

they are going to progress the cardboard rings for us.

That all sounds really exciting!

So you’re going to try cardboard versions as opposed to the wooden ones. I had good success with ross rounds this year but I really dislike the plastic content.

 

[ericbeaumont]

cardboard versions

Guess the card will be food-grade. I'm pondering: are the locking of rings essential? If not, a Dremel file would remove the cassette lock nibs, and plain card rings would be cheaper to produce.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

Guess the card will be food-grade. I'm pondering: are the locking of rings essential? If not, a Dremel file would remove the cassette lock nibs, and plain card rings would be cheaper to produce.

That’s the way I’m thinking of going

i should also mention the sump issue is it’s just not big enough anymore. It’s only 18 month old and I’ve outgrown it !!!