What did you do in the 'workshop' today

[Newbeeneil]

Very smart. Looks like an upmarket set of kitchen drawers.

Your “up market“ draws must be pretty rough!
Glued and screwed and the tin nailed at the corners.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

kitchen drawers

you have drawers specifically for wearing in the kitchen?

 

[Newbeeneil]

you have drawers specifically for wearing in the kitchen?

Don’t we all?

 

[JamezF]

Don’t we all?

"Pelican drawers"

James

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

I've more or less completed all the parts I'm making for this season: split boards, slatted racks, floors, roofs, dummy boards, ekes etc. plus assembling boxes and frames. @Newbeeneil posted a video of his jig which was very helpful, and also the Soudal Pro 40P wood glue he uses. It's great but I've had to go back to applying it from the container, and it's gets everywhere! (Jiggling hand ) I use a brush and tin with pva, but Soudal is not water based and I'm not into cleaning glue brushes.

I enjoy making up frames (time for my thoughts or whatever is I'm listening to) but this video from Bob Binnie has given me an idea for a frame making jig. Of course, I'll have forgotten all about it by the time I might need it.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I enjoy making up frames

Me too .....but then I don't have thousands to do

 

[JamezF]

Nipped down to a local business that I've had scrap ply from before and picked up another load.

It's mostly pieces that are just under half a sheet, plus some longer narrow pieces that are still wide enough to be used for crown boards etc. I reckon there's probably the equivalent of more than a dozen 8'x4' sheets worth of 5.5mm hardwood ply and the chap was happy to have £20 for the lot, which I was more than happy with.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

started painting a load of new UFE floors

 

[Fellstoflats]

Finished painting a hive and a nuc, gave two more nucs two coats of primer, and eyeleted 100 super sidebars.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Cleaning more frames, boiling and then a cold wash scrub to get rid of any residue

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Uggh! Got to do my frames too.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Uggh! Got to do my frames too.

I’m 380 odd frames in, I would crack on the season will soon be here.

 

[Ely]

Today I am assembling a langstroth hive. This is my first experience with langstroth. Is this about normal for the langstroth top beespace? It looks a little small to me.

 

[Murox]

Looks OK from the picture, but measure it. I have to quote BEE SPACE from the Cushman site
"We all "KNOW" that bee space is between 4.5 mm and 8 mm and it is also widely reported as being between 6 mm and 9 mm. However it is not a "variable" quantity, it is either 5.3 mm + or - 0.5 mm or it is 9.0 mm + 0.0 mm - 1.0 mm. In other words there are two distinct bands of possible bee space and these occur because in some situations the bees will work individually, but in other situations they need to be able to work back to back."

 

[Swarm]

Quarter or three eighths.

 

[JamezF]

There seem to be so many figures given for a bee space that I wonder if there's really any such thing, or if the bees will just work it out as long as it's reasonably close. Do all subspecies of A. mellifera build comb with the same midrib-to-midrib spacing in the wild, for instance?

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Do all subspecies of A. mellifera build comb with the same midrib-to-midrib spacing

no, scutellata and Adansonii have tighter spacings

 

[jkellum]

Today I am assembling a langstroth hive. This is my first experience with langstroth. Is this about normal for the langstroth top beespace? It looks a little small to me.
View attachment 39161

Langstroth has space above and below the frames that add up to the correct bee space.

 

[Ely]

Langstroth has space above and below the frames that add up to the correct bee space.

Ah great. Thank you

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

finished painting all the new UFE floors last night, cut mesh to size this afternoon and fixed them in place