National Hive Super Stack

Completely cleaned me out of Red Deal.  There’s more being delivered on Thursday and luckily I’ve a good [...]]]> With the order book so full I decided to work through the Easter weekend. By Monday I had a stack of Red Deal National Supers reaching up to the rafters of the workshop!

National Hive Super Stack

Completely cleaned me out of Red Deal.  There’s more being delivered on Thursday and luckily I’ve a good stack of cedar to work on in the meantime.  It’s a good thing that Andy came up with a transit van to pick up at lunchtime today otherwise I’d have struggled for room in the workshop.

Van Full of National Hives

Once he’d taken away this large order I managed to squeeze out a couple of Nucleus Hives by close of play.  Phew!  Friday is holiday!  My boy James is doing very well at school and as a reward the lot of us are off to Alton Towers Water Park.  I suspect that Saturday may bring more workshop time for this blogger but I’m going to allow myself a little R and R and enjoy Friday!

National Nucleus [...]]]> Here’s a couple of National Nucleus Hives I’ve finished today.  On the left a flat pack National Nuc in Red Deal with a standard floor.  On the right a fully assembled Cedar National Nuc with Varroa Floor (with slide out tray).  Both take 5 Hoffman DN4 frames with an extra 8mm manipulation space.

National Nucleus Hive Options

British National Hive in Red Deal

Here’s to a successful beekeeping 2010.  I’m long overdue to start frame making and I’m compiling a list of [...]]]> Now that the big freeze is over (at least for the moment it looks that way) we’re back in production.  Here’s a British National Hive with 2 Supers in Red Deal.

British National Hive in Red Deal

Here’s to a successful beekeeping 2010.  I’m long overdue to start frame making and I’m compiling a list of potential customers for DN4, SN1 etc.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get that thin kerf blade in use soon…

Allotment news is that I’ve just planted 2 out of 6 trees supplied by Rogers of Pickering.  1 Bramleys Seedling and 1 Spartan apple (recommended by Carl with thanks).  I’ve a couple of pear trees to plant next (Buerre Hardy and Conference) and 20 odd raspberry canes along with some plum trees and gooseberry bushes.  When we moved here as a family in the early 60s all these things were here and producing fruit.  Somehow they’ve been left to grow old and wither…(I blame the supermarkets..grrr).  With some luck and cultivation we’ll be back to picking our own fruit in a couple of seasons…