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Thread: Poly hive musings.

  1. #211

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    Quote Originally Posted by gavin View Post
    I accidentally put one through the wash the other week. It came out as good as new. Just thought I'd throw that one in in case there are any improverished academics (ha! contradiction in terms ... ) looking in.
    I bought 20 of them for £5-00 because I pull the ends off loose the spring bend and break them in my bag or pocket
    Sometimes the quill bit comes loose but they are great really (and the weapon of choice for blind grafters)

    Jon and Drumgerry
    I know that's a list of moans but honestly it's the tip of the iceberg
    I would rather folk go to their local assoc and if I had bees available I would tell the assoc (even if I'm not a member)
    If say Thornes sell a £300 hive and point the newbie at me for bees I want to help but sometimes wish I hadn't

  2. #212
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by fatshark View Post
    D
    Are your negative experiences with association members or Joe Public?
    I would not describe my experiences as negative but you get such a demand on your time it is hard to keep up.
    Some beekeepers are keen to go it alone with the occasional bit of advice but others want someone with them every time the crown board comes off. This is ok at the start but when you get someone in year 2 or 3 still looking for help all the time it is a bit much.
    They maybe need to look at whether beekeeping is the right hobby for them at that point as you cannot do beekeeping by proxy.

    What I try and do is channel all the advice and mentoring into the Monday and Thursday night sessions we run.

  3. #213

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    Maybe it's just me but I'm happy to draw a line under how much of my time I'm willing to give away for free. Possibly it's because I have young-ish kids and I need to balance/prioritise how much time I spend on each of my activities. People still coming to me for advice in year three would (if they're lucky) get a few links in an email and some advice to research the problem themselves. Some time spent on here or the other forum would teach them a lot of what they need to know.

    You guys clearly have more patience than I do!

  4. #214
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    Quote Originally Posted by drumgerry View Post
    Maybe it's just me but I'm happy to draw a line under how much of my time I'm willing to give away for free. Possibly it's because I have young-ish kids and I need to balance/prioritise how much time I spend on each of my activities. People still coming to me for advice in year three would (if they're lucky) get a few links in an email and some advice to research the problem themselves. Some time spent on here or the other forum would teach them a lot of what they need to know.

    You guys clearly have more patience than I do!
    Well said !
    When life gets busy something has to give and in my opinion one of the first things to go should be time spent on people unwilling to help themselves.

  5. #215

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    Well...maybe I did sound a bit harsh on reflection. I should say that I'm less bothered about spending time on the sharing of information. In the spirit of sharing if you know what I mean. And if it's something I know (probably from being enlightened on the matter by someone on here if truth be told!) and others don't. But not endlessly repeating basic stuff which people can find out for themselves if they could be bothered.

  6. #216
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    DR I'll discuss the price if the hive is not full of bees, otherwise I'll tell them it's a sellers market and they can get to the back of the line. It's their petrol.
    Grafting tools - I sold 100 so far, 150 more and I covered my costs, after that its all profit, or I'll give the rest away, can't really be bothered with the footwork for that margin, no challenge in it either.

  7. #217
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    And never give a colony away to a newbie. They don't look after them the same if they were free. If they pay for them. Every colony I gifted anyone was not well taken care of. Sold colonies have a habit of surviving longer...

  8. #218

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    Quote Originally Posted by Calum View Post
    And never give a colony away to a newbie. They don't look after them the same if they were free. If they pay for them. Every colony I gifted anyone was not well taken care of. Sold colonies have a habit of surviving longer...
    That's good advice Calum
    You feel you want to help get folk started but there is a right and a wrong way
    I would never make a living selling anything like bees
    Turns out the chinese grafting tools were 10 for £4.98 (not 20) free P&P
    Ebay is the place to sell them you will make a good profit easily on your bulk buy
    Mostly they sell about £1-00 each as singles

  9. #219
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Trog View Post
    Get a can/tub of ordinary white masonry paint, then some tubes of (water based) acrylic paint in primary colours from a local art shop. Using the white as a base (in a jam jar or tin), mix as much of each colour as you like, as pastel or otherwise as you like. All hives can be different colours and you'll end up with a Balamory-style apiary
    Just tried this ... it's looking expensive, and not in a good way. It turns out that white masonry paint has an awful lot of white in it. I added 75ml of acrylic green and got very pale green. I suspect that even at 1:1 the colours would all end up very pale.

    I then added the remnants of a can of brick red masonry paint ... Yuck. A sort of pinky, greeny colour. Not good.

    My recommendation would be "Don't do this at home" unless you can afford a lot of acrylic paint

  10. #220

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    Yep sorry Trog I did it too and I already had a tin of pale green paint. It is now slightly less pale!

    I did notice this on Ebay though and wondered if it might be more effective.

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1510259477...84.m1423.l2649

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