What did you do in the 'workshop' today

[Erichalfbee]

Yes please and timings you find work best

I can say that for me it’s imperative that you have a nice warm day when the bees are flying. My bees don’t go out in the rain

 

[E&MBees]

Filtered some cappings wax today ready for candle making. I have a stall at a local village fair soon. Very pleased with the results.

 

[Erichalfbee]

That looks lovely.
I’m dreading having to do mine. It’s a job for winter when the days are dark and the Rayburn is on.
Have a good fair.

 

[E&MBees]

That looks lovely.
I’m dreading having to do mine. It’s a job for winter when the days are dark and the Rayburn is on.
Have a good fair.

I washed a load in the very heavy rain over last weekend. It came out pretty good. Filtered it through a metal sieve lined with a piece of ladies tights. First batch of candles made. Second lot later.

 

[pargyle]

Abelo Super Warminng Trolley £580

https://www.abelo.co.uk/shop/warming-honey/supers-heater-trolley/

My Super warming stand - £7. The heater I had, the timber was offcuts from work and a bit of plywood, some bits of PIR, the aluminium tray was in my Dad's greenhouse for years, he rescued it when the Parish Dinners kitchen condemned it and I inherited it when he died and used it in my greenhouse. Biggest cost was the screws to hold it together.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Abelo Super Warminng Trolley £580

https://www.abelo.co.uk/shop/warming-honey/supers-heater-trolley/

My Super warming stand - £7. The heater I had, the timber was offcuts from work and a bit of plywood, some bits of PIR, the aluminium tray was in my Dad's greenhouse for years, he rescued it when the Parish Dinners kitchen condemned it and I inherited it when he died and used it in my greenhouse. Biggest cost was the screws to hold it together.

Well done, Mr Robinson. Now you need a fan under it and a thermostat.
By the way....having the supers warm when you extract makes a huge difference

 

[pargyle]

Well done, Mr Robinson. Now you need a fan under it and a thermostat.
By the way....having the supers warm when you extract makes a huge difference

I have an old computer fan that is going to sit on the top of the stack and draw the warm air up through a hole in a crownboard, although it may be sufficient just to let natural convection do the job - I've not yet tried it with a stack of full supers. The heater has a built in thermostat and with it set at about 3/4 the aluminium tray gets to just over 35 degrees. With an empty super as the first one in the stack I reckon that should be warm enough to warm the combs ... time will tell.

My dad reckoned I should have been named Heath ... I've had form for making things out of nothing almost since I could walk.

 

[markyfive]

Finally got round to finishing the components for my next batch of recycled timber supers...no real rush to
assemble them, as I truly 'missed the boat' for this season!

 

[markyfive]

Thought I'd better also finish off the 400 plus top bars which have been sitting in boxes in 'blank' form, blocking the workshop.
Fortunately I've made most of the side bars, just weighing up the virtues of a single piece bottom bar as depicted on the Dave Cushman site
and also used by Denrosa on their frames.

 

[pargyle]

I have an old computer fan that is going to sit on the top of the stack and draw the warm air up through a hole in a crownboard, although it may be sufficient just to let natural convection do the job - I've not yet tried it with a stack of full supers. The heater has a built in thermostat and with it set at about 3/4 the aluminium tray gets to just over 35 degrees. With an empty super as the first one in the stack I reckon that should be warm enough to warm the combs ... time will tell.

My dad reckoned I should have been named Heath ... I've had form for making things out of nothing almost since I could walk.

And it worked ... the honey warmed just a little is a bit quicker to spin out and strain ... you are right. Very little honey dripped into the tray.

Now all my extraction is complete it's serving a secondary purpose - three empty supers in a stack make a perfect insulated box for my cappings strainer with a polycarbonate crownboard on top it's saving the usual grief of draining the cappings in the airing cupboard.

 

[Erichalfbee]

draining the cappings in the airing cupboard.

You don't have a warming cabinet for buckets? That does the job much more quickly

 

[pargyle]

You don't have a warming cabinet for buckets? That does the job much more quickly

No .. I had an old fridge with a tube heater and ST1000 thermostat but when I got the Lidl Jam maker I decided that the space it was taking up was better used and it went to the tip (I jar up as I need it so I was not using the 'warming cabinet'). I'm not sure my two bucket draining system would have fitted in it anyway !

I was also intending to use some of the space I made for a small counter top fridge (working) to use as a Cheese cave .... that plan went awry when I told 'er indoors about my plan and the frosty stare indicated that cheese making was off the list of permitted activities (at least for the time being !)