What did you do in the 'workshop' today

[JamezF]

Made up two more floors and six clear crownboards (some to replace the existing ones) for the bait hives. My wife has suggested a couple of people we know who live in nearby villages and have gardens large enough to have perhaps as many as a dozen hives in each, so we're going to ask them about putting a couple of bait hives in first. That means I might actually use up all of my old Abelo poly hive parts. Probably means I should crack on with getting some other hive parts made up and push on with a few outstanding repairs. (What do you mean? All my repairs are outstanding!

I've just put the last of my saved brood frames into the freezer too. Not entirely sure where I'm going to keep them all once they come out, but that's perhaps a nice problem to have.

James

 

[Moobee]

Running out of kit so made up another brood box, a roof, two supers and loads of frames. My poor hands feel really stiff today.
Put an ad in Freecycle asking for plywood scraps so I can make some nucs.

 

[JimBee463]

I'm currently in the process of gathering the kit I need to get a nuc (or 2) made up, then i'll probably look to building another few national supers. I'll hopefully be 'meeting' my colony tomorrow (which will be kept at my association apiary for another few weeks as i'm just buying it tomorrow). So it's going to mean a few busy weekends!

 

[F.F.Stung]

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

Just a simple but most useful idea. A lot of us must have novel,good ideas which we could share.

 

[JamezF]

Found a metre-long piece of scrap timber in my woodpile that looks like it was probably trimmed off a roof joist. In old money I'd have called it a 9x3. I've cut it in half and cut one half lengthways into pieces 15mm thick, then trimmed a couple of strips off the width to use as bee space size edges for crown boards etc. and the rest will be used for the walls of bait hive floors or insulated crown boards. As soon as I have time the remaining piece will be done the same way. This allowed me to finish making up yet one more bait hive floor so I can try to get a few set up in other locations this weekend.

One thing I've not done is thought about how I'm going to close the entrance of the bait hive for transport. Some sort of mesh that I can clip over the front would be good I guess.

James

 

[Wilco]

Received an ultimatum about my lumber pile so spent a few hours removing nails (most of it is reclaimed), making a measuring jig for the mitre saw, cutting the wood into lengths and then making other cuts on the table saw. I've now got a lot of flatpacked kit. By my reckoning (not all of it is 100% ready to assemble but is close) I've got three roofs, three UFEs, two supers, five (cedar) brood boxes, two 3-4 hive stands and parts to cut for a third. Ran out of time as don't want to keep the neighbours up but most of it is tucked out of sight now. I'm going to be busy assembling stuff for a few evenings to come. Now burning offcuts in the mini BBQ while enjoying the fairly calm clear night and getting some headspace.

 

[JamezF]

Received an ultimatum about my lumber pile

"My wife said either the lumber pile had to go, or she would... I'll miss the old girl..."

My workshop is starting to look a bit like that, with stacks of cut timber everywhere. Looks like you've got a few pleasant days making stuff ahead.

James

 

[Wilco]

"My wife said either the lumber pile had to go, or she would... I'll miss the old girl..."

My workshop is starting to look a bit like that, with stacks of cut timber everywhere. Looks like you've got a few pleasant days making stuff ahead.

James

It was more that she threatened to chuck it out.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

My wife said either the lumber pile had to go, or she would

I remember a former commander on the fleet (long retired now) old Uncle Mort as he was known (his favourite saying was "as one door closes, another slams in your face") bought himself a motorcycle during a mid life crisis, mrs Mort was not amused, his comment on the messdeck:
"she said that either the bike goes or she does - I've still got the bike, she has yet to honour her side of the bargain"
A year later at the end of a 3 month 'season' (as we used to work the boats in the old days, a three month detatchment, with a few days off here and there) he came home to find she had put the house on the market (no signs outside), sold it and moved without telling him although, fair play, she'd left a note with a neighbour giving him their new address!!

 

[Newbeeneil]

Found a metre-long piece of scrap timber in my woodpile that looks like it was probably trimmed off a roof joist. In old money I'd have called it a 9x3. I've cut it in half and cut one half lengthways into pieces 15mm thick, then trimmed a couple of strips off the width to use as bee space size edges for crown boards etc. and the rest will be used for the walls of bait hive floors or insulated crown boards. As soon as I have time the remaining piece will be done the same way. This allowed me to finish making up yet one more bait hive floor so I can try to get a few set up in other locations this weekend.

One thing I've not done is thought about how I'm going to close the entrance of the bait hive for transport. Some sort of mesh that I can clip over the front would be good I guess.

James

I use a piece of varroa mesh held in one corner by a screw so I can rotate it over the entrance

 

[Newbeeneil]

Received an ultimatum about my lumber pile so spent a few hours removing nails (most of it is reclaimed), making a measuring jig for the mitre saw, cutting the wood into lengths and then making other cuts on the table saw. I've now got a lot of flatpacked kit. By my reckoning (not all of it is 100% ready to assemble but is close) I've got three roofs, three UFEs, two supers, five (cedar) brood boxes, two 3-4 hive stands and parts to cut for a third. Ran out of time as don't want to keep the neighbours up but most of it is tucked out of sight now. I'm going to be busy assembling stuff for a few evenings to come. Now burning offcuts in the mini BBQ while enjoying the fairly calm clear night and getting some headspace.

View attachment 32361

Nice work Will, was the cedar from the stuff I got you?

 

[Wilco]

Nice work Will, was the cedar from the stuff I got you?

Yes, wanted to leave it longer but wasn't safe to do so! Lovely stuff.

 

[JamezF]

Still going with the bait hives... Made up the frames for three more today. That gives me four more ready to go in addition to the three I've already set out. I could manage one more, but I don't think I'm in any rush for that. If I don't use it this year I shan't worry.

Next I think I need to get cracking on some dummy boards. I never seem to have enough and I really ought to have one available for each of the bait hives, plus a few more spares.

James

 

[pargyle]

Well ... not exactly in the workshop ... more in the back garden and nothing to do with bees. Got my new raised beds ready to put into use ... Pallet collars ... two coats of sadolin on the inside, three coats of Ronseal ranchcoat outside and lined them with damp proof membrane ... hopefully they will last longer than the last untreated pallet wood ones .... plus, they will stack if I want a deeper raised bed.

 

[Moobee]

Gradually working my way through the spare timber pile. Made another hive stand for the out apiary as the nuc is currently on top of one of the hives as it was an emergency split.

 

[Garry R]

Surely in the current inflational upward spiral a wood pile is a great investment.

 

[Moobee]

Surely in the current inflational upward spiral a wood pile is a great investment.

You'd think so but OH keeps trying to get rid of anything we haven't used recently! If I stand still long enough, I might end up in a skip....

 

[Newbeeneil]

You'd think so but OH keeps trying to get rid of anything we haven't used recently! If I stand still long enough, I might end up in a skip....

Oh I'm a big supporter of getting rid of anything not being used as it normally means more of my "stuff" can migrate into the vacated space. "Stuff" is always in constant use as far as I'm concerned.
The day before yesterday I managed to rid part of the garage racking of old grandkids toys and fold up chairs to make storage room for my new acquisition. (Smart weighing machine for jar filling)
Regarding lumber piles, I have several dotted around the locality in my apiaries and at home. They consist of cedar that was cut at the local saw mill and is seasoning so I couldn't possible dispose of it as it's not even ready to use yet! (Well that what I tell SWMBO)

 

[JamezF]

Spent this evening working through all my spare kit separating it into what makes up a full hive and what I need more of. Looks like I have enough that I could have six more (double brood) hives ready to go tomorrow if I had enough frames and foundation, with perhaps another eight on top of that if I get all my repairs done. What I'm really short of is crown boards, though I intend to replace all of those with clear ones anyhow, dummy boards, clearer boards and floors. For the winter I also need to think about insulated dummies and probably for next year I'll need more demaree boards and nucs.

Crown boards and clearer boards can wait until I see what comes up in the sales I think. Scratching about in the workshop for scrap sheet material I think I've come up with enough to make up about twenty dummy boards which should be enough to keep me going for a while so I've started on some of those. Then I really need to get going on the floors so I can get colonies moved onto the new ones by the end of the summer.

Some years back I was offered a load of beekeeping kit that had been sitting around unused for (probably) decades for free, as long as I took the whole lot. Much was usable with a bit of cleaning and tidying up, but there were some oddities too. I rediscovered what I think might have been section boxes which aren't a great deal of use to me, but put two together and I reckon I might be able to construct a viable bait hive should I need any more.

Dragged a decent size piece of 18mm ply out of the scrap timber left by a local business for anyone who wants it on my way back from swimming. Not entirely sure what I'll use it for yet, but I'm sure it will come in handy somewhere

James

 

[JamezF]

Driving back from coaching on Friday I discovered more scrap wood had been left out including offcuts of 9mm OSB and ply, so those went into the back of the car. Some were too small for much other than dummy boards so I cut those to size and glued/nailed them to reclaimed DN4 top bars after doing a "lug snap" test. I think that should give me enough for the time being, plus a few spares.

James