Author Topic: Today I Made (Read 27268 times)

Ben Framed · « **Reply #60 on:** September 06, 2023, 09:58:26 am »

Quote

Most people think honey is a consistent product (something Sioux Bee tried to teach them for years) and they are surprised to find out it is not.

Yes, as was I once upon a time.. Sioux Bee 'Clover' Honey...

Lesgold · « **Reply #61 on:** September 06, 2023, 06:10:26 pm »

You guys are making interesting points in relation to honey. I?ve found this to be all true at the local markets. If you have a stall, the first thing you want is for people to stop and look. If they do stop, it gives you the opportunity to speak to them. If they start asking questions, it shows they are interested. From that point on, it becomes quite a simple task to sell your produce. Having an observation hive is a huge advantage. People of all ages stop, look and ask questions. Their focus then changes to what you are selling. Having a range of products presented in a variety ways gives the customer choice. I have found that the gift packs are eye catching and draw people in to look and touch. They were introduced to make the display look interesting rather than as an a saleable item. They are now becoming quite popular and sales have increased as a result. Honey tasting has also added to the success of the stall. A couple of varieties of honey allows people to taste and appreciate that they are different. At the markets last weekend, I had two varieties of honey available for customers to try. I was surprised at the number of people who wanted to try both. In many instances, they couldn?t decide which one they liked more so they ended up buying a jar of each. One of my next projects is to make a sign for the stall. It will just say ?Local Honey?. Sales increase dramatically when you explain to people where the honey is produced. In my case it is only 5km from where it is being sold. When my wife and I were away on holidays, we stopped at a large market that was packed with people. I saw a local beekeeper selling honey at his stall. His location wasn?t the best but he still had crowds of people walking past. I decided to get a coffee, sit nearby and watch how people reacted to his stall. In the 5 minutes I was watching, not a single person stopped to even look at what he had for sale. His stall was just a couple of tables with three large stacked piles of honey. Unless you were specifically looking for some honey to purchase, there was no reason to stop.

Lesgold · « **Reply #62 on:** September 06, 2023, 06:17:02 pm »

My wife looked at my packaging attempt and basically said it didn?t look right. Even though she has one hand bandaged at the moment, she was able to make a dramatic improvement to what I?d done just by adding some gum nuts to the display and off setting the cross over point so that all labels were visible. I initially made four of these boxes and will add them to my display at the next markets. After that I will make a few changes as suggested by you good people. Thanks for your comments and advice.

Michael Bush · « **Reply #63 on:** September 07, 2023, 06:07:04 am »

I like the string and the garnish. Nice. Other things I like to have to get people to stop are some propolis, some beeswax, some comb honey and some pollen. Even if I don't sell much of some of those, they are conversation pieces.

Lesgold · « **Reply #64 on:** September 08, 2023, 11:17:28 pm »

Thanks Michael. I think my wife has sorted that presentation quite well. I know very little about uses of pollen and propolis. I think they would be good topics to discuss and I would been really keen to learn about their uses.

Lesgold · « **Reply #65 on:** September 11, 2023, 03:21:29 am »

I decided to take your advice Reagan and try a slightly larger display box so that the wood wool packing would be visible. My daughter gave me three bags of the stuff so it will be put to good use. It will be interesting to see the feedback at this weekends markets. Local people tend to be a bit more conservative in relation to this type of purchase but visitors tend to spend more on non essential items. We have a holiday weekend coming up in three weeks. Quite a few visitors from the bigger cities like Sydney and Canberra visit the local area during that time and tend to spend more on gifts and local produce.

The15thMember · « **Reply #66 on:** September 11, 2023, 12:57:37 pm »

Quote from: Lesgold on September 11, 2023, 03:21:29 am

I decided to take your advice Reagan and try a slightly larger display box so that the wood wool packing would be visible. My daughter gave me three bags of the stuff so it will be put to good use. It will be interesting to see the feedback at this weekends markets. Local people tend to be a bit more conservative in relation to this type of purchase but visitors tend to spend more on non essential items. We have a holiday weekend coming up in three weeks. Quite a few visitors from the bigger cities like Sydney and Canberra visit the local area during that time and tend to spend more on gifts and local produce.

I think that looks phenomenal. I can't imagine anyone not stopping a taking a look at something like that, especially a tourist.

Ben Framed · « **Reply #67 on:** September 11, 2023, 01:18:32 pm »

Times 2 !!!

Lesgold · « **Reply #68 on:** September 12, 2023, 12:44:41 am »

Thanks again for the advice Reagan. I will see how things go over the next couple of markets. While at the markets, two questions keep on popping up about the honey. ?Is it local honey?? And the other question that people ask is in relation to whether the honey is raw or processed. I decided that I should have a hanging sign just saying ?Local Raw Honey?. I pulled a wider board off an old pallet, ran it over the planer and then sanded it until it was smooth. A sealer was applied followed by a couple of coasts of polyurethane. The board was then taken to a sign writer to complete the job. He will attach the lettering in a couple of days after the finish hardens up. Will post a pic in a few days when I pick it up.

Lesgold · « **Reply #69 on:** September 14, 2023, 10:14:27 pm »

Getting back to another project that was on the go, the market sign that I was making was picked up from the sign writer a short while ago. It will hang via some eye hooks above my honey display. I was scratching my head for a while as to the wording on the sign. Should it read ?Local Raw Honey? or Raw Local Honey?? I decided that the former was the best choice in my situation as the first thing that people ask is in relation to locality. Some people then want to know if the honey is processed in any way.

The15thMember · « **Reply #70 on:** September 14, 2023, 11:53:02 pm »

Just a quick note, I split off the pollen discussion onto a different thread, since it will be easier to locate that way, and since it's not really on topic with this heading. Here's the new thread.
https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=56794.0
Carry on.

Lesgold · « **Reply #71 on:** September 18, 2023, 09:09:46 pm »

Michael Bush got me thinking about top entrances on a hive. If I am going to make a top mounted pollen trap, the first step would be to get the bees trained. I could have just wedged the lid open and worked it that way but then I started thinking about options. Eventually I decided to make a lid that could be used open or closed. The Snelgrove board gave me a simple solution. I used some old pallet material and made up a top. If it doesn?t work all that well, I still have a lid that can be used in the closed position. I will place it on a hive in a day or so to see what happens.

Michael Bush · « **Reply #72 on:** September 19, 2023, 06:32:00 am »

I think you'll get a lot of burr comb between the cover and the top bars. Mine are 3/8" at the front where the entrance is and nothing at the back so most of the top bars are within bee space.

https://bushfarms.com/beestopentrance.htm

Somewhere I have pictures of my latest ones, which have the shims on both sides so you can flip it to close the entrance or use it as a bottom board or a cover.

Lesgold · « **Reply #73 on:** September 19, 2023, 07:12:46 am »

Good point Michael. I?ll have to see how it goes. I?ll keep the mat in place over the frames to keep burr comb under control but having all traffic moving through this area may generate problems. I?d hadn?t thought of that. Thanks for pointing it out. It will be placed on a strong hive tomorrow and will photograph how it goes over time. As issues arise, you may be able to advise me as to possible solutions to any problems. This will only be a temporary lid until a top pollen trap is fitted.

Lesgold · « **Reply #74 on:** September 19, 2023, 06:24:18 pm »

The Sundance pollen trap appears to work well (from what I?ve read and seen on some YouTube clips) so it may form the basis for my homemade trap. The conical bee escapes are a good idea and seem to be critical to the correct movement of bees. The stainless mesh used in the commercial trap appears to be machine pressed and in my situation would be a reasonably challenging aspect of the project. I decided to have a go at constructing a couple of freehand cones using some metal flyscreen to see if it was feasible. After playing with some mesh for about 20 minutes, I determined that it would work and set about figuring out sizes and construction methods. The first step was to make a template for the mesh. I found an empty breakfast cereal box and cut one side out. A compass, ruler and pencil were put to use drawing up the template. It was good to be able to use technical drawing theory in a practical situation. The template included extra material for overlap of the conical sides, a foot to secure the cone to the pollen trap and some extra material towards the end of the cone so that sharpe edges of the mesh could be bent away from the cone exit. I thought this would be important to reduce some damage to bees as they exit the cone. The template was cut out and a couple of pieces of mesh were then used to see if the size was correct. I was able to shape the mesh reasonably well by hand and at a pinch, all cones could have been formed this way. I am thinking that a wooden cone of the correct size would help to form the mesh so I may work on producing one today.

Michael Bush · « **Reply #75 on:** September 20, 2023, 06:37:48 am »

Somewhere I have a regular Sundance trap. I have several Sundance II traps. I have built a few traps over the years. Here are some observations:

You need some sort of drone escape. The ones on the Sundance II and Sundance work very well in that they also serve as a worker escape. Workers quickly learn to exit through them as it is much quicker and easier than exiting through the #5 screen wire. You can get by by just drilling one 3/8" hole as the escape, but you will lose pollen as the workers will try to use it but you'll get some as the traffic jam at that hole will force a lot of bees to use the trap. This will also be less efficient than the drone escapes as the traffic jam, again, will slow down the exiting workers.

You need the bees to enter through a #5 (aka 1/5" aka coffee cloth) hardware cloth. This is the same size used by coffee processors to sort coffee beans. Usually available mail order at least but then often only in a full roll. Some of the US bee supply vendors sell it in smaller lengths. Under the #5 and over the catch drawer you need a #7 hardware cloth. This is the right size for the pollen to fall through and keep bees out. #8 (1/8") is too small for it to freely fall down. #6, the bees will wiggle their way through. You need window screen on the drawer bottom to keep the pollen from molding.

Lesgold · « **Reply #76 on:** September 20, 2023, 06:55:52 am »

Just the sort of information I need. Thanks Michael. Hardware cloth is hard to come by in Australia but I have ordered some plastic pollen trap strips that I will try in the interim. They have entry holes that are supposed to be of the correct size to trap pollen. The cones will have an exit hole of 8-9mm. I?m hoping that this will allow bees (including drones) to escape quickly. Do you think this will work or should I adjust my design? I?m looking at 8 or 9 cones at this stage. I do have an aluminium mesh that bees can?t get through but pollen should fall through. It?s only about 200mm wide but that should be enough for this trap. I think that the whole thing should be screwed together so that any components that don?t work as planned can be pulled out and replaced.

Lesgold · « **Reply #77 on:** September 20, 2023, 07:07:57 am »

I started cutting up some metal flyscreen mesh using the template that I made yesterday. The cones formed reasonably well but the shape was a little messy. The main issue was the sharp edges on the mesh at the exit point. This would be hard on the bees so I decided to turn the edges over a ring of wire. The rings were formed around a piece of 10mm rod to keep the size and shape uniform. To improve the shape of the cone, I turned up a former using a 10mm bolt with the head removed. This was glued to a block of wood and then machined to the desired shape. Forming the cones then became a simple task.

Michael Bush · « **Reply #78 on:** September 20, 2023, 07:57:53 am »

A quarter inch (6.35 millimeter) square opening will let a drone out. A 3/8" (9.525 millimeter) round hole will let a drone out but a worker won't find their way back in. Your 9mm should work fine. However many will easily fit will work fine. More is better than less since all the field workers will be exiting them along with all the drones. Overflow will be existing the #5 screen. BTW #5 is also useful for a queen excluder. I often use a push in cage of #5 to confine the queen to a space where I will get larvae to graft.
https://bushfarms.com/images/QueenConfinement5.jpg

Lesgold · « **Reply #79 on:** September 20, 2023, 08:24:34 pm »

I started putting together the first stages of the trap. I decided to go with 7 escapes I order to make stapling a bit easier. The base of the trap will have bee space included. End grain of plywood will be set into a trench or a rebate where possible. I can?t really attempt anything else until my pollen trap strips arrive so that spacing can be calculated. The size of the pollen drawer will be determined after the bottom mesh layer is installed. Components are only screwed together at this stage.