Time to batten down the hatches.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hJQ18S6aag
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/16068618
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Time to batten down the hatches.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hJQ18S6aag
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/16068618
Things were never the same after the Beeb stopped using the ancient pyramidic scrolls for forecasts.
Is this a three-brick or a four brick storm Trog? Or even a two?
Time for all the polyhive users to get nervous.
My apideas could end up with Grizzly in Stranraer.
Tie them down with long pieces of string and see if you can be the first to have Apidea kites.
Sent home from work today so checked my colonies at 3 sites. All OK but then the blocks of concrete on the roof seem to be working. Just watching a large water spout from my front window twisting down the loch
Wind scattered a couple of my spare empty hives - no damage.All the occupied hives and neucs o.k.
Reports from the association site suggest that the stones on the roofs of the polyhives were not sufficient. I'll have a look at lunchtime. The Swienty poly National roofs do have a big rim around the edge.
Must be wonderful living in a place with a view of the loch from Rosneath. Helensburgh featured prominently in the TV coverage with the seafront getting a bit of a battering. Did you really cross using the ferry yesterday Jim?
Used the military road to get home. The MOD know how to construct roads. No floods or trees etc. They should give lessons to the council on road construction but then they have to transport the odd nuke along them.(I also transport the odd nuc along this road)
Gavin, should have used a few concrete blocks on the poly hives in the club apairy. Our club has a system that has a concrete slab base with a thick wire running underneath with 2 loops that ropes are attached to to hold down the hives
Hope you and the military don't get the two sorts of nucs muddled, Jimbo ;)
One brick was sufficient for my hives. All fine, which is more than I can say for our roof :( Only minor damage, thankfully, but work required before the next storm.
I need find something heavier or adopt the Helensburgh system or something like it for the association's polyhives. We have the slabs under the hives, but no wire as yet. I think that Murray just sticks a weight on top - must ask him. I had one decent stone or two smaller ones on top. One lid, and one lid plus the feeder had blown off but D had it in hand and they were back on. The bees had retreated down the way a little. Not sure if the small clusters are going to make it.
At my own apiary I had assumed that the shelter might mean that they were no-brick (wooden) colonies. Not so. Two had been blown right off their stands and were upside down with the clusters exposed. Righting a brood box with frames out of place and a strong cluster objecting to the disturbance wasn't easy, but I didn't get stung. The second was a lot weaker and didn't complain.
The orchard has lost another old tree and there was a mature oak down in the garden of a cottage nearby. Forgot to take a camera.
Hope they'll come through alright Gavin. A no-brick colony? I have a heavy stone on every hive in all weather and all locations.. So does everyone else down here. Even though it's rarely needed, it gives some peace of mind. And I don't have to sit up in bed in the night in a cold sweat wondering if I'd added a brick or not.
It’s a very busy time of year for me so I only got to check my hives this morning (before anyone asks I’m not Santa). Thursdays storm was severe even by Orkney’s standards. At it’s peak a low-lying wind turbine nearby recorded 100mph sustained wind speeds and a gust of 138mph. Having suffered storm damage in the past I make sure my hives are well prepared for winter, so up here it’s not a 3 brick colony but a 3 stone colony. Luckily my apiary was unscathed as you can see in the attached photos.
Nice photo on the front of this months Scottish Beekeeper but I think a few more bricks are needed.
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Ah! That lovely Orkney stone which lends itself to everything from building neolithic villages to battening down hives! The apiary on the cover would have had an extra brick each, or even a stone, had the hives not been so waterlogged. If we get a stretch of dry weather (stop laughing, Gavin; it does happen!) I'll go round with extra weights. They are pretty well sheltered, though; the biggest danger is falling trees!
It's blowing a proper gale again.
Will have to check lids again tomorrow.
No snow yet.
It sounded as bad out there as it was last Thursday and the road and rail bridges around us were completely shut, so I called round in the dark and the driving rain with a torch to check on the bees. All still upright and with their tops on.
That's some covering of stone you use in Orkney. Maybe you should go the whole way and just make your hives from rock.
I'll look forward to Trog's next picture of heavily weighted Mull hives slowly sinking into the mire. Don't rely on big trees for shelter - it didn't work for mine.
Still only one brick, Gavin ... and they're sitting on bedrock with a slab underneath and only one brick high on top of that. The shelter belt is drystone wall, woodland, sloe hedging, willow .... the big trees aren't shelter - only a threat if they fall that way!
Lovely pictures Lindsay.
My hives all had 3 bricks on but 1 was blown over... it now has 4 bricks on it. I'm going to put a ratchet strap around each too after they've been moved.
I'd recommend the ratchet strap before you move them ;)
Another big storm again last night. This time there was not as much warning. I have just walked around the nature reserve where I have some of my colonies and they are still OK. Was also on the look out for some correx nuc hives from Belfast but did not find any.
Were you hoping to find bees in them, too, Jimbo? ;)
The plummeting barometers and shipping forecast were sufficient warning for me to go round and give every hive a second brick as the wind direction was slightly different to the last storm. Supposed to be a bit calmer today but I've just been sandblasted by hail and a freezing NW gale between the stable and the muck heap!
Still relaxed (relatively) about the apiary here: full wood to the SW and willow stands behind all the hives to the north. All with one roof rock so far, poly-free zone (excepting apideas and Keilers but all inside and empty). The worry here is water: although high up and avoiding the guaranteed Severn flooding in the valleys below we have assorted containers with string collecting rain from inside the oak beams above the windows in our bedroom and porch - thank you woodpeckers and bluetits for pulling the foam out of the holes, oak plugs in the Spring.
Meanwhile back at the apiary two of the roofs are suspect and need new tin. The rest I hope are coping: at least the bees are finally getting a rest from flying about collecting tiny parcels of gorse pollen and eating their stores.
Edited to say hi all :)
Hi Susbees
Lovely to see you posting.
One of my strongest was as light as a feather yesterday - as that 58+1000+1000 oxalic went on (just to be different). :p
Somewhat surprising that that one stayed on its stand while another two blew off a couple of weeks ago. Despite the apparent shelter.
G.
It's that time of year again don't get caught out :eek:
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I rather envy your nice flat Orkney stone! We've bricks on the polynucs but trusting the roofs on the Nationals to cope as it's only 8/9. Let's hope we're right!
Keep safe, Orcadians - and all fellow-islanders. May the lifeboats stay moored - no rescues or medivacs tonight.
Was thinking of Peter Cook all day today anticipating the mighty wind coming in tonight.
Bricks went on the lids yesterday and several apideas were taped on to stands with gaffer tape.
The wind is SSW by S here so I think JIMBO might be the recipiant of any loose apideas and hive parts.
All a bit of an anticlimax at the moment. very little wind but a deluge of rain. More wind this coming week. Bright sunshine and pouring rain at the moment. There seems to be a lot of late brood this year so having to feed maintenance rations at the moment. They are storing some tho' . Be nice if they stay strong into the winter and beyond.
we had a strong wind here yesterday afternoon but just rain and some sun since
Hope that you've all got your chosen number of bricks - or hunks of Orkney stone - on them! It must be, oh, two and a half months since the last storm.
Bad here as well. I will have to get out and check everything in the afternoon when the wind has died down.
Tried to drive along the Carse of Gowrie this morning and met three trees down over roads (all now made passable) and one that had brought telephone lines down over the road too. All the bridges shut, all the trains off, level crossing stuck in the down position too. There could be a few hive roofs off, or hives toppled. Will check later.
3 hives blown over -- strapped together doubles
1 mini nuc the keiler blown down and in bits (2 mini nucs left now)
Snowing a bit as I type
Door off shed completely
Two chicken houses on their sides
No trees down this time
Bad weather for a comb over :)
This is a cheerful link while hiding indoors
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1Chqxk
Now you have made me nervous. Must get out to check mine later.
The apideas and the stuff in the Garden is OK.
We used to reckon Ralph Coates set the standard for combovers.
Bobby Charlton was so passé.
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By happy chance or perhaps anticipating the wind I had a number 2 cut yesterday so my head is not compromised by the storm conditions.
Took me awhile to work out what a com bover was!
A couple of stacks of unused boxes over, two wooden hives shifted on their stands, hair dishevelled, and Invergowrie has turned completely white. I suspected something was up as I couldn't see a thing driving back. The whiteness not the hair. Which is turning white anyway.
Bees all OK though.
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Hi Gavin
Hives back upright shed still out of commission
Welded one hinge back on (tacked really)
Opened the thing to get at the inside of the hinge
Door fell off landed on welding mask (auto darkening cheapo) smashed into a pile of bits
Getting dark now glad the day is over :)
Hope we don't get much more of this weather