Moving Bees in December

[gavin]

Took me ages to get comfortable with tightening and releasing the ratchet strap and also the flat fold-over buckle ones. But that was before YouTube:



For anyone with the flat flip-over thing strap (leverlock I believe) Thornes explains here how to use it.

Then you have to click 'Further details' against the red strap.

G.

[EmsE]

That's great! Thanks Gavin.

[chris]

So, yet another reason for thinking that beekeeping is for men. You could try tying a pretty bow runs for cover.........................................

[gavin]

I'll bet you anything that Ems gets to grips with it faster than I did. Scary things these ratchet straps when you first meet them. Is sexism still alive and well in deepest France then?!

I was forced into buying straps for all the hives I had a couple of summers ago after sheep were put in the orchard to shorten the grass. Great scratching posts. The hives not the sheep. Then my spare boxes got filled with bees, got some more spare boxes, they got filled with bees, and now I don't have enough straps. Must rectify that, though this weekend I'll be scouring the place for heavyweight rocks like they use in Orkney so maybe straps can wait.

[Jon]

Lidl do ratchet straps for £2 on a regular basis. I think there are similar prices on e-bay as well.

[Adam]

I find the ratchet straps tend to foul up and not release very well and if fingers are cold they get caught and then I swear. The cheaper ones (like the black one in Gavin's picture) work so much better.
I used a ratshit one for pulling a small tree vertical after it had blown over in the wind and after a few months the webbing failed due to sunlight exposure.

[EmsE]

So, yet another reason for thinking that beekeeping is for men. You could try tying a pretty bow runs for cover.........................................

I don't normally keep bows in my tool box So long as I take my bee keeping gloves off I should be able to thread the straps through fine now. I agree that bee keeping is for men as well as women

The problem I have with the black ones in Gavins photo is that they tend to slip- the ratchet ones i'm hoping will be more secure (as suggested).

[Jimbo]

Hi EmsE,

I find the black ones won't slip if you buy decent ones. I have been using these type of straps for over 25 years for tying canoes to roofracks with no problems with the straps slipping. You can get canoe straps in outdoor shops. They will be a bit more expensive than the Tesco version but are a bit better made