I bought 50 Thorne seconds deeps at their stand at the ubka conference a couple of weeks ago and haven't even checked them yet.
Could have a few dog-leg deeps to put together. I think they cost about £28.
I am going to reinforce these with two strands of fishing line in order to let the bees draw more of their own comb this year.
The plan is to replace two or three frames of the darkest comb from every colony.
I did this with a dozen or so frames last year and they drew them out very quickly.
I wonder what hot caustic soda does to fishing line?
It's cheap as chips anyway and takes 30 seconds to thread through and fix with a drawing pin.
Quite right. I wasn't really worrying about it, just intrigued by the juxtaposition of low tech DIY comb strengthening and industrial-scale processes in beekeeping. I'm blethering now so I'll shut up.
Frame wire is likewise and has worked well for me so far.
I've only bought Thornes frames and so long as I hit both ends of each bottom bar with a hammer a couple of times, they will slot into the side bars. Without this, they are generally too wide. My hands wouldn't be able to cope with 'thwacking' the top bar into the side bars (cringe), so again use the hammer. You just need to be careful not to hit it too hard as I've split a few side bars that way where they really are not wide enough to take the top bar. I keep any parts that I can't match up until the next supply of frames come in, hoping they'll match up with some of then.
Ladies with lady-like hands are definitely recommended to avoid the thwacking and use a hammer instead.
You are quite right about the splitting of the side bars, worse with a hammer of course. I'm no woodworking expert (as you've probably spotted) but when the parts have been stored in a really dry place splitting seems to be a worse problem. You must struggle to find really dry places in Kilbarchan!
G.
Use a rubber mallet to knock frames together - heavy enough to get the most reluctant parts to fit and soft enough to avoid damage to the bottoms of side bars.Good for hive assembly too.
This man mostly uses brute force but finishes off with a light hammer:
http://www.somersetbeekeepers.org.uk/assembleframe.htm
I remember finding that video when we discussed the topic on that other forum, the one that disenfranchised most of its posters. It was hard to find one (a video, not a forum) that was half decent as there are zillions of Americans on YouTube proudly showing the world how little they understand the simple process of frame assembly.
The Somerset guy gets top marks for the nice accent, though I wouldn't attach both bottom bars at first but leave one off until the foundation was in place.
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