What did you do in the 'workshop' today

[Erichalfbee]

It's freezing out there! I've been giving ten of the new Maisemore nuc-bodies a second coat. Believe it or not, the colour is called 'beeswax!'
Back on the frame-rail front......they are very crumbly. Despite efforts to avoid touching them at all, they are proving very easy to damage. I have one of my BS nucs back here at the moment. Their rails are far chunkier and the moulding seems neater and 'denser.' The BS nucs have been through a whole busy season, with barely a scratch. The new ones have not even been assigned yet! I think I will have to strengthen their rails with correx strips.

Crikey they look awful. Mine are nothing like that.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Crikey they look awful. Mine are nothing like that.

neither are mine - and I have a fair few.
I'd be tempted to call up Jon at Maisemore's for a chat

 

[Murox]

It's freezing out there! I've been giving ten of the new Maisemore nuc-bodies a second coat. Believe it or not, the colour is called 'beeswax!'
Back on the frame-rail front......they are very crumbly. Despite efforts to avoid touching them at all, they are proving very easy to damage. I have one of my BS nucs back here at the moment. Their rails are far chunkier and the moulding seems neater and 'denser.' The BS nucs have been through a whole busy season, with barely a scratch. The new ones have not even been assigned yet! I think I will have to strengthen their rails with correx strips.

I think you need to have a chat with Maisemore about that, not up to scratch.

edit...... see JBM has suggested similar.

 

[drex]

D'you mean it will take Nat frames with foundation rather than just top bars?

Exactly. Still have a TBH that I inherited from my old friend . As Pargyle says hoping it will be a brood factory and will also be a place to temporarily put frames full of stores etc that I remove from my production broods

 

[Boston Bees]

Maisemore nucs are a little bit more delicate than BS ones. I encountered trouble when moving them about to paint them. I actually caused damage to the 'frame rails' three times.

You paint the frame rails though, right? Two coats of masonry paint on them works for me - not had any flake like that. I can see that it could happen if they weren't painted though, certainly. They are the first thing I paint (it's the only bit of the inside that I do paint, just to be clear).

I would paint the BS rail too, though they are inherently tougher as you say.

 

[Swn58]

They came from Simon the BK. It was already pointed out that I could have got them cheaper directly from Maisemore. To be honest, I haven't the time or inclination to go through the hassle.
Early last year, I was in a very one sided argument with Bee-equipment for ages. It was one-sided, because they chose to say nothing! I just don't deal with them anymore.
Maybe I was just unlucky with this batch, who knows? Either way, I will be wary of these products now, whatever.
It's not like they are totally unusable!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You paint the frame rails though, right?

Never painted the insides of my poly boxes, certainly not the frame rails, never had an issue with any of them crumbling or breaking in any way.
I think @Swn58 really needs to pick up the phone and chat to someone over this. I seem to recall issues with a bad batch some time ago (I may have imagined it) which were quickly withdrawn.

 

[Boston Bees]

Never painted the insides of my poly boxes, certainly not the frame rails, never had an issue with any of them crumbling or breaking in any way.
I think @Swn58 really needs to pick up the phone and chat to someone over this. I seem to recall issues with a bad batch some time ago (I may have imagined it) which were quickly withdrawn.

His rails look exactly the same as mine (before I paint them). I don't mean the damage - I haven't ever had damage like that, because I am very careful with them until the rail is painted.

I love Maise nucs, and have 15 or so, but at the end of the day that rail is a thin strip of polystyrene (and not particularly high density polystyrene either) and as such it is inherently a weak point - the best design in the world can't get round that. Cleary Swn58 has given one of them a bit of a knock/squeeze, but that can happen.

I think a phone call to STBK will be met with "yes, we can confirm these are made of polystyrene - don't whack them or grab the thin bit with your thumb and squeeze it" But who knows - if they are feeling generous he might get a free one out of it. Plainly if it came like that, that's a different matter, but I don't think it did?

(And as I say - painting the rail strengthens it significantly, as it removes the tendency for the little balls of poly to flake away from each other)

 

[pargyle]

His rails look exactly the same as mine (before I paint them). I don't mean the damage - I haven't ever had damage like that, because I am very careful with them until the rail is painted.

I love Maise nucs, and have 15 or so, but at the end of the day that rail is a thin strip of polystyrene (and not particularly high density polystyrene either) and as such it is inherently a weak point - the best design in the world can't get round that. Cleary Swn58 has given one of them a bit of a knock/squeeze, but that can happen.

I think a phone call to STBK will be met with "yes, we can confirm these are made of polystyrene - don't whack them or grab the thin bit with your thumb and squeeze it" But who knows - if they are feeling generous he might get a free one out of it. Plainly if it came like that, that's a different matter, but I don't think it did?

(And as I say - painting the rail strengthens it significantly, as it removes the tendency for the little balls of poly to flake away from each other)

I think I would cut the rails off and replace them with metal runners ... the sort i have in my Paynes polys just insert into a slot on the rebate .. would be quite easy to run a hot knife along the rebate to make a slot and then put metal runners in - problem solved - Simon is usually on the ball and very approachable I'm sure he would want to know.

 

[Boston Bees]

I think I would cut the rails off and replace them with metal runners ... the sort i have in my Paynes polys just insert into a slot on the rebate .. would be quite easy to run a hot knife along the rebate to make a slot and then put metal runners in - problem solved - Simon is usually on the ball and very approachable I'm sure he would want to know.

It's an option, certainly, if the runners were to break. But once painted I have never (yet) had an issue with the poly runners.

 

[Swn58]

You paint the frame rails though, right? Two coats of masonry paint on them works for me - not had any flake like that. I can see that it could happen if they weren't painted though, certainly. They are the first thing I paint (it's the only bit of the inside that I do paint, just to be clear).

I would paint the BS rail too, though they are inherently tougher as you say.

I never thought to paint the internal areas. I'm not sure that paint would help that much, but it's a thought. I will add correx strips if need be, later on.

 

[Swn58]

Cleary Swn58 has given one of them a bit of a knock/squeeze, but that can happen.

Yes....it can and did happen during the painting of the first ten. I painted five BS ones last year, causing them NO damage in the process. They are simply tougher!
I'm glad that other people have noticed the same problem. As I said earlier, it's not that much of a problem; they're still useable. However, I only wish to buy equipment that will last as long as possible and not show 'wear' before they are even being used for the purpose intended.

 

[PLUTO]

i made this

 

[Kirbygrip]

I took advantage of the cold weather and made a Russian Scion in the workshop. Will hang on some sturdy trellis and hope to tempt a swarm to bivouac there rather than in the hedge. A bit of lemongrass oil between the old frames might help. The roof becomes a crownboard when lowered onto a hive as its hinged.
Fingers crossed.

 

[PhilN]

It's freezing out there! I've been giving ten of the new Maisemore nuc-bodies a second coat. Believe it or not, the colour is called 'beeswax!'
Back on the frame-rail front......they are very crumbly. Despite efforts to avoid touching them at all, they are proving very easy to damage. I have one of my BS nucs back here at the moment. Their rails are far chunkier and the moulding seems neater and 'denser.' The BS nucs have been through a whole busy season, with barely a scratch. The new ones have not even been assigned yet! I think I will have to strengthen their rails with correx strips.

Might a plastic A4 spine bar (the sort of thing that acts a spine holding a document together) be a solution? They come in a variety of thicknesses and would simply clip over the frame rail giving it support - even better if glued on - this is the sort of thing I mean

 

[Erichalfbee]

I took advantage of the cold weather and made a Russian Scion in the workshop. Will hang on some sturdy trellis and hope to tempt a swarm to bivouac there rather than in the hedge. A bit of lemongrass oil between the old frames might help. The roof becomes a crownboard when lowered onto a hive as its hinged.
Fingers crossed. View attachment 25323

Cool.
I had to look that up
There’s more here
https://www.beesource.com/threads/the-russian-scion.303234/Let us know if it works.

 

[Murox]

Cool.
I had to look that up
There’s more here
https://www.beesource.com/threads/the-russian-scion.303234/Let us know if it works.

I had to look that up as well. Interesting way of catching your bees.

 

[rolande]

Cool.
I had to look that up
There’s more here
https://www.beesource.com/threads/the-russian-scion.303234/Let us know if it works.

. A kind of bee-Bob then? Something that merited mention in Wedmore's 1932 book but now hardly known in the UK. Things change quickly.

 

[Antipodes]

Cool.
I had to look that up
There’s more here
https://www.beesource.com/threads/the-russian-scion.303234/Let us know if it works.

Michael Bush has used them in the US....
https://www.patreon.com/posts/russian-scion-20301956

 

[Gilberdyke John]

. A kind of bee-Bob then? Something that merited mention in Wedmore's 1932 book but now hardly known in the UK. Things change quickly.

Wedmore - didn't he start the matchsticks under the crownboard nonsense?