What did you do in the 'workshop' today

[JimBee463]

Easily forty years ago my dad made something very similar (it had an arched handle) from some scrap pine for carrying tools about in. Eventually it ended up in my hands, but I rarely used it as was a bit larger than I generally needed so it was forgotten about. I've been thinking that I need some better box to organise my inspection kit and the photos reminded me of it. Unfortunately I now have not a single clue as to its whereabouts

James

I made it to be not too large so that it doesn't get too heavy to carry. It's also made from 9mm ply with a 19mm pine base. I was considering some more partitions in it but as I didn't make it huge they ould have been too small to be of any use.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Easily forty years ago my dad made something very similar (it had an arched handle) from some scrap pine for carrying tools about in. Eventually it ended up in my hands, but I rarely used it as was a bit larger than I generally needed so it was forgotten about. I've been thinking that I need some better box to organise my inspection kit and the photos reminded me of it. Unfortunately I now have not a single clue as to its whereabouts

James

My father had more than one (I think that if he had soare time on site and saw some decent wood, he'd just make one up) one he made was a thing of beauty it was actually built as a saw bench so handy for jobs where he needed a steady surface at just above knee height but had rays underneath for tools, a handhold cut into the top surface meant it could be carried like any other toolbox - I sometimes wonder where it went after he died

 

[pargyle]

My father had more than one (I think that if he had soare time on site and saw some decent wood, he'd just make one up) one he made was a thing of beauty it was actually built as a saw bench so handy for jobs where he needed a steady surface at just above knee height but had rays underneath for tools, a handhold cut into the top surface meant it could be carried like any other toolbox - I sometimes wonder where it went after he died

My grandad had something similar - he was a builder ... in the days before Workmates I think they were pretty much something that any carpenter would knock up on site from scraps of timber to make their life easier ....

I have several similar to this:



Just made out of sawn timber planks ...a few screws and mine have the tool tray a bit higher and a couple of planks across the bottom of each end to provide stability. Useful for all sorts of things - hop ups, sawing, temporary hive stands .... two of mine currently have my wormery sitting on them !

 

[Wilco]

Finished off test run of clear CBs with feeder holes. Only paid for the screws and glue. Now just need to find more time...

 

[Ely]

Painting polyhives and preparing frames for return to beekeeping. All of the brood comb unfortunately was destroyed by wax moth, along with my bee suit that I foolishly left in the shed!

 

[Swarm]

Welcome back, Ely.

 

[Ely]

Welcome back, Ely.

Thank you. Nuc is settled in the garden now. Good to see those bees flying again

 

[Newbeeneil]

Finished off test run of clear CBs with feeder holes. Only paid for the screws and glue. Now just need to find more time...

View attachment 32236

Nicely done Will. I would put a 2" upstanding on one side to give more rigidity, make room for varroa treatments and allow a recess for feeding fondant.
I know what you mean about time! I don't know how you find it when you have young kids, I wouldn't have had time at that stage in my life.

 

[Wilco]

Nicely done Will. I would put a 2" upstanding on one side to give more rigidity, make room for varroa treatments and allow a recess for feeding fondant.
I know what you mean about time! I don't know how you find it when you have young kids, I wouldn't have had time at that stage in my life.

Thanks. I've been toying with that although currently undecided as I usually use a separate eke with insulation and like them being reversible... My older design of wooden ones had screws so I could clip on a rhombus board and so they all doubled as clearer boards but I'm not sure how well that design transfers across to plastic. I was half wondering about building in a snelgrove style exit on one side too.

There's usually a two hour window between them going to bed and 9PM when I can get away with using power tools... Less fun in Winter as my work area is basically the drive.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I need to make some more.
One thing I did with some clear crownboard was to make one side around 5cm deep with a hole for the sublimox
Top vaping is so easy. You can do it any time of day and not bother closing off the entrance.

 

[JamezF]

It's kind of late, but as none of my colonies have shown signs of wanting to swarm I'm guessing that there's still some value in making up some bait hives. Been meaning to do it for ages, but I seem to be quite short of sufficiently round tuits at the moment. I plan to have at least a couple here at home. I will also be contacting a friend who rents offices nearby (converted from farm buildings) for his business and I know there are several colonies in the roof spaces. He has at least one shipping container in a south-facing open-fronted barn, so putting some bait hives on top of the container seems like it's worth a go.

Today I've collected all the bits together whilst trying to dodge the rain showers, but I still need to make some floors and put some starter strips in frames.

Fortunately by the looks of the weather forecast nothing is going to be in a hurry to swarm for a few days yet.

James

 

[JamezF]

Well, today hardly went as planned

I discovered this morning that my mitre saw wouldn't work: the lifting mechanism for the blade guard was jamming and stopping the blade being lowered. I ended up having to take it all apart and discovered that various bits of the mechanism have just become worn to the point where it doesn't work properly. I managed to cobble together a repair, but I think a new mitre saw might be in my very near future. I can't really complain. The current one was relatively cheap when I bought it about twenty years ago and sees a reasonable amount of use. It doesn't exactly owe me anything.

In the end I managed to get a fair number of parts cut, but other than that I only have two completed bait hive floors to show for my efforts. Ideally I'd like to get at least four hives finished including frames and starter strips by the end of tomorrow, which sounds quite achievable as long as I don't find that my favourite hammer has turned into glass overnight, or my drill suddenly only cuts corkscrews

James

 

[JamezF]

as long as I don't find that my favourite hammer has turned into glass overnight, or my drill suddenly only cuts corkscrews

I spoke too soon. I discovered this morning that the battery charger for my cordless drill has stopped working in the last couple of days (and it's not possible to buy a replacement any more). Irritatingly my father-in-law has a similar drill with different branding (so similar that it probably came off the same production line in China) with an almost identical, but incompatible, charger

If anyone needs anything to suddenly stop working, do feel free to drop it off here. I seem to be a one-man disaster zone at the moment...

James

 

[JimBee463]

Pop along to

Pop along to their training apiary.
Most of them run on Sundays. Much better to stick your nose in, make some contacts and ask in person.

Well, I finally managed to get someone to come and look at my proposed site today and, it's viable (he also said it will make a lovely small apiary).

So next step is to do some graft, get it cleared and levelled and meanwhile buy a nuc from my association (to be kept at the branch apiary until autumn) and get into being a beekeeper!

Happy bunny and really looking forward to the 'journey'

 

[drex]

@JamezF
I have a MacAllister ( b&q cheapie), hedge trimmer and a strimmer. Both chargers packed up. Nothing on ebay or Amazon. Rang the maker. "Discontinued line". Looking on ebay I found a later Mac Allister charger, prongs looked the same, took the risk and it works a treat. I was not going to chuck £100 of equipment just for lack of charger. Have a look round

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well, I finally managed to get someone to come and look at my proposed site today and, it's viable (he also said it will make a lovely small apiary).

So next step is to do some graft, get it cleared and levelled and meanwhile buy a nuc from my association (to be kept at the branch apiary until autumn) and get into being a beekeeper!

Happy bunny and really looking forward to the 'journey'

Hooray
Pictures when you’ve done it and have hives in situ?

 

[JamezF]

@JamezF
I have a MacAllister

Oddly enough, that's the drill my father-in-law has. He bought it perhaps a month after I bought mine, which is branded as Titan, but is clearly the same drill with a different exterior moulding. Mine was discontinued shortly afterwards. The batteries are near-identical, but mine has three contacts whereas his has two (though both drill bodies and chargers have sockets for four). The batteries have a number of keyways moulded into the mounting face which don't match, so it isn't possible to swap them around. I do wonder if the Titan model had some extra circuitry in that was subsequently removed for the MacAllister model so it could be produced more cheaply. I will keep an eye out on ebay though. I might well open the charger up to see if anything obvious has failed too. Not much to lose there

James

 

[JamezF]

Despite today's tribulations I now have two completed bait hives. I finished making up the starter strip frames for the second a short while ago. I've used "pre-loved" DN4 frames that have been through my steam wax extractor which will hopefully add to the appeal to scout bees searching for their new "des res". I'm switching everything new to DN5, so I have quite a few to spare. Having a jig for drilling the holes for the fishing wire helped to speed things up. If the weather allows tomorrow (thunderstorms are forecast) I'll get them put out. I'll also try to get at least another two ready to go.

On the subject of the drill, I've discovered that there's a (discontinued) Erbauer charger that will also work. A quick search on that Ebay turns up a few, all used, with asking prices varying from half to the same as the cost of a new drill, two batteries and a charger! I don't like to ditch tools that are still capable of being used, but when it costs so much just to keep it going a new one starts to look even more sensible. I've had the existing charger apart and there's nothing I can do to fix it. There's a sooty black mark on the PCB where a surface-mount component used to be

James

 

[Bazzer]

Finished off test run of clear CBs with feeder holes. Only paid for the screws and glue. Now just need to find more time...

View attachment 32236

I find it useful to put the feed-hole off centre so it can be rotated over the cluster in winter

 

[JamezF]

More bait hive work...

I now have four completed bait hives. Two have been deployed in the apiary, another outside the window of my office and I'm still thinking about a suitable location for the fourth. I have enough parts to make up two more. Six bait hives perhaps feels a bit extreme, but I'm mainly trying to find uses for my old Abelo poly hives that have both top and bottom bee space. If I use a double super for the bait hives I might attempt to turn the remaining brood boxes into double nucs, though I'd then need to make dedicated feeders for them. We shall see...

I've also been feeding comb removed from hives earlier this year through the freezer. It's slow work as I can't do that many at a time. Hopefully I should be done by the weekend.

James