What did you do in the 'workshop' today

[Newbeeneil]

Yes ... I've put pallet wood through mine ... hence the caution because I've been there ... the skinny wire nails can break off when you dismantle the pallets and the little bits that can get left in the timber will destroy the blade ... I'm not saying don't do it - just be fastidious...,the blades can be resharpened but it's a PITA taking the blades out and the palaver of re-aligning the spindle takes a lot of time... a chipped blade leaves a groove like the Grand Canyon but I suppose if it's only beehives you are going to be building its less of an issue ...

TBH I wouldn't use my thicknesser with anything but virgin wood as I value my machine too much. I've seen what damage a nail can do on a commercial machine so I'd hate to see what it would do to mine

 

[pargyle]

TBH I wouldn't use my thicknesser with anything but virgin wood as I value my machine too much. I've seen what damage a nail can do on a commercial machine so I'd hate to see what it would do to mine

It can even happen with virgin wood ... I was putting a face on piece of sycamore that had been rough sawn ... there was a bloody great bang as it went through the planer ... there was what was left of an old clout nail that the tree had actually grown around. Chipped both blades big time ... People have posted pictures of all sorts of things that trees have swallowed up .. I saw one somewhere where a tree had actually grown around a bicyle frame where the bike had been leaned against the tree and then left for lord knows how many years ...

Here you go ...

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016...d-to-a-tree-when-he-went-away-to-war-in-1914/
That wouldn't do your planer a lot of good !!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

People have posted pictures of all sorts of things that trees have swallowed up

I was reading an article about French walnut - much sought after for gun stocks, the trees are hundreds of years old and many survived the first and second world war battlefields. A regular hazzard at the sawmills was when the blade hit a piece of shrapnel deeply embedded in the tree.

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

I finished floors and 'slatted racks' for my hives: 11 new floors with entrances from underneath and 8 slatted racks (after a trial with three this year). I'm grateful to JBM for the under hive entrance floor design that I found here. This design is easier than another UHE floor (kewl floor?) on the web, and I prefer that JBM's structure has a wooden rather than a Correx landing platform.

All I can say after one season of three hives with slatted racks is that it hasn't done these colonies any harm. I feel that the empty space near the entrance is somehow akin to the natural nest and I like the idea that the bottom of the brood frames (with stores too) is some distance from the entrance and separated by the slats. You can read about slatted racks here and although they're popular in the US, and a very old idea too, I wouldn't know if the claims of these benefits can be substantiated. They're only available in the UK for Langstroth. The bought ones, like the plans available on the web, are stupidly over-engineered. The hardest thing for me was measuring for the positioning of the slats (directly below the frames) and that's not difficult at all.

However, the main thing I did during all this construction was listen to Mark Winston's book, Bee Time: Lessons from the hive. It's a great read, especially the chapters 'Being social' and 'Conversing', which tell a much bigger story than the specific research by Seeley and his predecessors on the collective decision-making by scouts choosing a nest site for a swarm.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I finished floors and 'slatted racks' for my hives: 11 new floors with entrances from underneath and 8 slatted racks (after a trial with three this year). I'm grateful to JBM for the under hive entrance floor floor design that I found here. This design is easier than another UHE floor (kewl floor?) on the web, and I prefer that JBM's structure has a wooden rather than a Correx landing platform.

All I can say after one season of three hives with slatted racks is that it hasn't done these colonies any harm. I feel that the empty space near the entrance is somehow akin to the natural nest and I like the idea that the bottom of the brood frames (with stores too) is some distance from the entrance and separated by the slats. You can read about slatted racks here and although they're popular in the US, and a very old idea too, I wouldn't know if the claims of these benefits can be substantiated. They're only available in the UK for Langstroth. The bought ones, like the plans available on the web, are stupidly over-engineered. The hardest thing for me was measuring for the positioning of the slats (directly below the frames) and that's not difficult at all.
O

Interesting concept, something I think I will try. Another job for the closed season . I don't think I'll have a problem with the spacing as I use castellations in my brood box so I can set the slats up with that.

 

[E&MBees]

Constructed my first underfloor entrance today using the plans posted by JBM. Thanks.

 

[The Poot]

Constructed my first underfloor entrance today using the plans posted by JBM. Thanks.

Looking good
If you find yourself short of something to do during the dark days of lockdown 2, feel free to make me four please

 

[Malcolm Stamp]

I finished floors and 'slatted racks' for my hives: 11 new floors with entrances from underneath and 8 slatted racks (after a trial with three this year). I'm grateful to JBM for the under hive entrance floor design that I found here. This design is easier than another UHE floor (kewl floor?) on the web, and I prefer that JBM's structure has a wooden rather than a Correx landing platform.

All I can say after one season of three hives with slatted racks is that it hasn't done these colonies any harm. I feel that the empty space near the entrance is somehow akin to the natural nest and I like the idea that the bottom of the brood frames (with stores too) is some distance from the entrance and separated by the slats. You can read about slatted racks here and although they're popular in the US, and a very old idea too, I wouldn't know if the claims of these benefits can be substantiated. They're only available in the UK for Langstroth. The bought ones, like the plans available on the web, are stupidly over-engineered. The hardest thing for me was measuring for the positioning of the slats (directly below the frames) and that's not difficult at all.

However, the main thing I did during all this construction was listen to Mark Winston's book, Bee Time: Lessons from the hive. It's a great read, especially the chapters 'Being social' and 'Conversing', which tell a much bigger story than the specific research by Seeley and his predecessors on the collective decision-making by scouts choosing a nest site for a swarm.

Thanks for that I haven’t come across ‘slatted racks’ before and they definitely sound like a good wheeze, I shall be building a few this winter to try.

 

[deemann1]

I got a load of pitch pine flooring off a job I'm working on nice timber 7x1 just ran a piece trough the planer thicknesser, will make some roofs floors and supers outta this

 

[Newbeeneil]

It was a choice between 2 hours of Strictly or playing with some cedar to make my take on a slatted rack. - slatted rack won!

 

[Antipodes]

I got a load of pitch pine flooring off a job I'm working on nice timber 7x1 just ran a piece trough the planer thicknesser, will make some roofs floors and supers outta this

Nice one...

 

[Hachi]

Found more boards so I converted them to demeree boards. More brood boxes made with a couple more to go. I'll start painting when the rain stops. Next on the list are clearer boards with the thicknesser getting its first run. Started on the roof's and need insulation so will be skip diving round the local parish before B&Q.

 

[Bee Bumble]

will be skip diving round the local parish before B&Q.

Be careful! An acquaintance of mine found a butler sink in a skip years ago, he asked the builders (who put it there) if he could have it - they said yes. He put it on his bicycle handlebars and began pushing it home. A couple of streets later, he was met a PC who asked where he got it. He explained and was arrested for theft from a skip. The PC said an items in a skip are the property of the skip owner. He was fined about £100.

 

[pargyle]

Be careful! An acquaintance of mine found a butler sink in a skip years ago, he asked the builders (who put it there) if he could have it - they said yes. He put it on his bicycle handlebars and began pushing it home. A couple of streets later, he was met a PC who asked where he got it. He explained and was arrested for theft from a skip. The PC said an items in a skip are the property of the skip owner. He was fined about £100.

He should have had a better lawyer .... the law is quite clear ...

In the case of a skip the property is still the owners until taken away in accordance with their directions; thus you must ask them if you wish to take anything. If the builders were responsible for clearing the redundant items under their contract then they were the owners. If the owners of the sink were not the builders then they should have directed your friend to the actual owners for permission to remove. Once the skip is picked up anything in it then becomes the property of the skip hire company.

 

[Hachi]

For the avoidance of doubt, I always ask, I never just take. Like I've explained on another thread, everything has an owner trash or not. To assume otherwise is reckless. Thanks both.

 

[Swarm]

Another eight brood boxes done, waiting for the next load to arrive. Finished sorting out older broods and floors for conversion to maisonettes.

 

[Michael ECB's]

Busy with a "passive" trap out... wanting to trap out some of the local black genetics in an effort to preserve them.... Getting very rare and will be given there own Apiary closer to the mountains and away from dwellings. (Agro little girls - very moody)
Trap below show a ground cavity trap out... Not forced! Just re- routed through an established empty brood box.
Swarm currently residing in a recent landfill site on farm. (Landfill = building rubble, large rocks etc.... lots of open spaces under ground...

 

[Apple]

For the avoidance of doubt, I always ask, I never just take. Like I've explained on another thread, everything has an owner trash or not. To assume otherwise is reckless. Thanks both.

Down this way we have homeowners clearing out their chattles and put it by the gate with "FREE"
My sons friend parked his somewhat tatty scooter next to his parents pile of free stuff.... some B****r went and took it!
Found a couple of weeks later abandoned in the next village carpark with a puncture!!!

I always ask and explain that the salvaged goodies ( Paint Kingspan, timber etc) will be helping the bees!

Chons da

 

[Apple]

Busy with a "passive" trap out... wanting to trap out some of the local black genetics in an effort to preserve them.... Getting very rare and will be given there own Apiary closer to the mountains and away from dwellings. (Agro little girls - very moody)
Trap below show a ground cavity trap out... Not forced! Just re- routed through an established empty brood box.
Swarm currently residing in a recent landfill site on farm. (Landfill = building rubble, large rocks etc.... lots of open spaces under ground...

Well done
I did have a correspondence with a beekeeper in Tasmania some years ago, he was a solicitor.
Said that the dark Tasmanian bees were originally from Cornish Amm stock, although hearing of their aggressive nature my thoughts were they were more likely to be French Amm.
He was on a campaign to prevent the cutting of Leathewood Forrest as it was destroying the undercanopy.
He said the bees around the sea level areas we mostly Italian in origin.
Were any DNA studies ever carried out?

Sorry if a bit off topic.

Back to building the stairwell lift in the Skibber... which is turning into a major project!
Chons da

 

[Michael ECB's]

Said that the dark Tasmanian bees were originally from Cornish Amm stock, although hearing of their aggressive nature my thoughts were they were more likely to be French Amm.
He was on a campaign to prevent the cutting of Leathewood Forrest as it was destroying the undercanopy.
He said the bees around the sea level areas we mostly Italian in origin.
Were any DNA studies ever carried out?
Chons da

I was supposed to send samples of the black bees to one of our universities in Cape Town for DNA testing... I had 10 collected and frozen but one of my assistants "Girl Friend" threw them out as they were GROSS and took up space in the freezer at his home?? Haaaa haaa
We (Local bee keepers) at first presumed they were simply a bit smaller and so dark because of old wild brood comb, older colonies = smaller cells etc etc... BUT it would seem this is perhaps not the case...

Pic below shows a new swarm colony just moved in. under ground... some black individuals can bee seen... Not a great pic but taken "blindly" by sticking arm down a hole and taking a pic with phone... second pic of drone I pulled out..