What did you do in the 'workshop' today

[Erichalfbee]

Husband made a woodpecker nest box which has gone up on one of the trees in the drive. Looks just the right size for a swarm

 

[Plenty of honey]

Aren't the best swarm traps, boxes you made for something else!!

 

[victor meldrew]

Was once called out to a squirrel box housing a colony of bees !


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[alldigging]

Him indoors has made a model top bar hive to go with the model national. He's been making frames too.
There will be some photos shortly!

(Is it wrong to make a bee suit for an action man?)

 

[Erichalfbee]

(Is it wrong to make a bee suit for an action man?)

Of course it is.......look at Bear
Takes his stings like a man before he eats brood comb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StPqc_JoOtY

 

[Itchy]

I recon he needs to be careful next time

 

[DerbyBee]

Built my flatplack hive including roof and omf, along with 30 frames (mix of dn1 and sn1). Getting ready for the new season ahead.

 

[Erichalfbee]

(mix of dn1 and sn1)
Just to throw in my personal preference
DN4....brood frames with Hoffman side bars are self spacing. The alternative with DN1s is plastic frame spacers or castellations. I think castellations in the brood box are the devil's work plastic spacers are a pain.

SN1s. Cheap and cheerful. No need to use anything else in the supers. I use Hoffman spacers to get the bees to draw the frames at 11 to a box then move them on to 10 frame castellations.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

As ericA - but with the additional wrinkle, that I then put 9 frame castellations in the supers.

I think you get just a bit more honey per super, and I like the convenience of loading a full 9 frame super into a 9 frame extractor.

Dusty

 

[DerbyBee]

I like to use plastic spacers in the brood box and castellated spacers in the super. But all to their own and their preference.

 

[Swarm]

As ericA - but with the additional wrinkle, that I then put 9 frame castellations in the supers.

I think you get just a bit more honey per super, and I like the convenience of loading a full 9 frame super into a 9 frame extractor.

Dusty

Makes sense when loading the extractor. As for more honey, ITLD suggests best results are hoffman spaced super frames.

 

[REDWOOD]

I converted some supers last year to 10 frame spacing with drawn comb and some of them were over 30lbs, far greater than those with 11 frames.

 

[nantmoel]

Made up 7 national roofs with built in insulation, all waiting to be treated and have the metal roofs nailed on.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

, ITLD suggests best results are hoffman spaced super frames.

it makes sense for the commercial - no faffing around with castellations/spacers and they can whizz off the cappings with their electrict decapper almost back to the frame without leaving too much honey in the cappings tray, doubtful the honey/super is any more than ten frames though.

I converted some supers last year to 10 frame spacing with drawn comb and some of them were over 30lbs, far greater than those with 11 frames.

I like ten frames to a super - when you're extracting ten or twenty supers at a time,with maybe the odd frame empty, set aside for showing or unwired and meant for cut comb (usually mix them 50/50 with drawn wired foundation from the last extraction) or going back as it's unripe the fact that a full boxful can't go in to the extractor in one go is neither here nor there I find that with nine frames to a box either a lot more goes into the cappings tray or you spend ages fiddling with the uncapping knife.

 

[madasafish]

Painted large hive stand -2.5 langs- in garage. Cold.

That's the end of this winter's construction: 3 Lang hives, 2 lang nucs plus stand..

 

[Swarm]

It was something I remembered him mentioning when the merits of less frames/deeper combs were being discussed, I've always had 10 on castellations in mine.

 

[madasafish]

Assembled 20 Lang Jumbo frames and wired them up..(Tedious)

 

[nantmoel]

Cut all the wood ready to make 10 crown boards, just need to make a jig to router the bee escape hole then I can start to groove the side and assemble.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Cut all the wood ready to make 10 crown boards, just need to make a jig to router the bee escape hole then I can start to groove the side and assemble.

I'd forget about porter escapes and go for rhombus escapes instead - much more efficient and no moving part to jam up - and you can use a round hole!

 

[Millet]

Cut all the wood ready to make 10 crown boards, just need to make a jig to router the bee escape hole then I can start to groove the side and assemble.

I just cut a 2in hole in the crown boards i have made with a hole borer in the drill, for feeding purposes, if i ever need a bee escape i also have made a Forest board.