Hi to all my readers, it is now just past the Solstice and the days will soon get longer so I am trying to get a number of jobs done that will help me and the bees.
Get some more the storage trolleys finished and down to the barn and at home
Get any spare or unused gear down to the barn, onto the trolleys and strapped down
Check the hive entrances.
Order some more wheels for new trolleys
Order some more ratchet straps.
Improve the lighting in the honey room
Tidy my honey room
Sort out QR codes for the Honey Jars
Write this blog.
Job 1 Trolleys…. The design is a very simple ladder frame, two lengths 40 inches long of 2 by 3 inch timber with 3 cross bars to make it about 18 inches wide. All screwed together with long screws (thank goodness for power screwdrivers) and set on 4 * 125mm castors (apologies for the mixed systems of measurement!)
I will put in a little line of thanks to my friend David Mathewson (www.mathewsons.co.uk) of the Bangers and Cash TV program who lets me keep it all in a corner of one of his storage facilities… so he can push my gear out of the way if he needs to!
Job 2, done, it was a wet ,cold, miserable job….. The spare boxes were still covered in a heavy dew that had frozen and even at 14:00 the frost had not lifted there in the village…. So it melted as my hands / arms came into contact with them and soaked my clothes.
Job 3, removed entrance blocks and dragged out any dead bees who might block the entrances, replaced the blocks / mouse guards and left them to get on with it….
Job 4, ordered more trolly wheels…. They are really useful. They are off ebay and it just happens they are dispatched from Germany, but now I find that the order is canceled by the seller because DHL etc are not sending to the UK because Covid Travel ban At the moment.
Top Tip…. never lift anything you can push! So all those lovely heavy supers full of honey will need some trolleys in the honey room… I really want a powered hive crane…. But I can't afford one, However I did find this in the forest one day … abandoned ….it needing a good home… and it came with a crane, However at about £80,000 each I thought the guys at Woldgate honey might notice...... so I left it there !
So instead make a hive barrow, just upgraded mine with the replacement of the pneumatic tyre… with a foam filled one….. Ebay of course ! £12.00 no more flat tyres at inconvenient moments!
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Job 5 Ebay… managed to order 10 new straps…. Probably will get here after Xmas, they are great for keeping hives safe all the year round and for the trolleys in the barn for safety is we move them
Jobs 6 & 7 …...Put them off till another day !
Job 8 Done !
Job 9 Looks like I got it done !
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And Finally Finally! Happy Christmas and New Year to you all…. And remember if you were to visit your hives at midnight on Christmas Eve, legend has it that you can hear the bees singing… Please let me know if you hear them!