Buster Gonad ... the wheelbarrow thread

[fatshark]

For those readers not familiar with the Viz cartoon character Buster Gonad please refer to this Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buster_Gonad) for background info ...

I have an out apiary with poor vehicle access other than in very dry conditions (Ha!) containing a number of hives in a good forage area. I nearly crippled myself in past years collecting full supers. This year I've doubled the number of hives :rolleyes: I therefore intend to build a wheelbarrow to move supers across rough/wet ground, similar to that described by Dave Cushman (http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/hivebarrow.html).

Has anyone built one of these? Any tips? I've so far failed to source an out of use wheelbarrow to modify, so may have to buy a new one to butcher (believe me, £30 is a small price to pay rather than move ~16+ supers the half a mile my hives are from the road). That being the case, can anyone recommend a suitable one to purchase - sturdy, rustproof/galvanised and from which the 'pan' can be readily removed to allow replacement with a suitable platform. Weatherproofness is important as it's likely to live in a hedge most of the season. The ground is too rough for a two wheeled sack truck or similar.

Of course, if the weather continues as it has since late March this wheelbarrow will instead be used to transport boxes of fondant to the hives.

Gonad transport is not part of the design specification :D

With thanks

[HJBee]

Gonad transport is not part of the design specification :D

don't need the reference, remember it well! The images this has conjured!! 🙈

[gavin]

I'll never look at a horse chestnut tree again in the same way. :eek:

My strategy has been to show beginners beekeeping. There are usually willing volunteers keen to spend time close to bees.

Peter Edwards has a neat folding wooden hive carrier (http://www.stratfordbeekeepers.org.uk/PENotes/HiveCarriers.htm)but it needs two folk and is only suitable for Nationals.

As far as the wheelbarrow idea goes, from limited experience when the bees were in the garden the hard wheel that Dave is modelling on his website isn't the best. Go for a big pneumatic one if you can.

[EmsE]

Well, that's certainly an education I wasn't expecting lol and I now know where the hubbie gets some of his sayings from.

[gavin]

Decided to click onwards, fearing that my education had been deficient, and came across this on the Viz site from their letters page:

AS PROFESSOR of Applied Biochemistry at Guys Hospital, I cannot agree with the findings of Prof. Alan Lucas at Great Ormond Street Hospital when he says that "breast is best". I have always been an arse man.
Prof. Stanley Jordan, Guys Hospital

Academics, eh?!

[HJBee]

Finbar Saunders & his Double Entendres was one of my favourites.

[gavin]

Having just researched that one further, I have to say that you can reveal too much about yourself on an internet forum!

[Jon]

Ooh er missus!

Don't forget Roger Mellie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Mellie).

Could be rhyming slang for Nellie!

Congratulations to fatshark for dragging the forum to a new low!

[lindsay s]

After starting the latest neonicotinoid thread I'm beginning to feel like Biffa Bacon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biffa_Bacon

[chris]

I totally agree with Gavin about the tyre.
I'm not suggesting that you buy one of the following, but the pictures may give an idea:

http://www.icko-apiculture.com/en/brouette-pretty.html

http://www.icko-apiculture.com/en/brouette-pick-up.html

http://www.icko-apiculture.com/en/brouette-serrage-lateral.html

http://www.icko-apiculture.com/en/catalogsearch/result/?q=JE212

[fatshark]

Not wanting to lower the tone further, but staying on topic, I've just discovered the Dyson Ballbarrow (http://content.dyson.co.uk/insideDyson/article.asp?aID=ballbarrow&imgID=ballbarrow_01.jpg&asset=ballbarrow_01.jpg&at=Image&hf=&js=) ... perfect for Buster Gonad and with the fat tyres recommended by Chris and Gavin.

Thanks for the Icko links Chris, that was a new site to me and they have sone useful and unusual stuff.

[gavin]

I still think that a fat pneumatic tyre is the way to go, absorbing the bumps better than the Dyson ball. The make we have is the black one second along from the top left (at the time of posting anyway). It has carried many a hive between the back of the garden and the car in relative comfort, unlike the earlier hard-wheeled one a la Dave Cushman.

http://search.diy.com/search#w=wheelbarrow

I put a brick in the bottom to help stabilise the hive which was otherwise jammed inbetween the sloping sides of the barrow. The garden was more or less organic at the time.

[chris]

Icko links - that was a new site to me and they have sone useful and unusual stuff.

They are my supplier- loads of choice and good prices, BUT almost everything geared towards Dadant and Langstroff hives.

[Bumble]

I made friends with the people at the local tip, who put a 'junk' wheelbarrow to one side for me. It only cost a couple of pounds.

I cut down a pallet, wedged and tied it inside the barrow part to make a level platform. A couple of ratchet straps holds supers or brood boxes in place whilst they're being moved.

If you prefer a pneumatic wheel they're easy enough to change, Wickes, B+Q etc sell them, but if the wheelbarrow frame is too rusty it might collapse.

[fatshark]

Finally built the hivebarrow ... after a bit of searching I found a wheelbarrow that:

Could easily have the 'pan' removed
Provided a horizontal platform
Had a large pneumatic tyre
Was not completely rusty … or likely to get that way


Mr. Bodgit (as I'm termed by some family members who do not appreciate scrap bits of wood, regular bloodloss and frequent swearing) got working over the winter and built a suitable platform. The balmy weather of the bank holiday weekend allowed the first outing when I installed a new hive stand in an out apiary.
1480 1481
Being horizontal - at least if the ground is flat - it allows me to use it as a temporary hive stand for short distance moves within the apiary.

F*@%ing marvellous as Roger Mellie would say :)

[Bumble]

Excellent!

I move my hives on an old barrow with a wide tyre, I put a small pallet inside to make a platform and use a couple of ratchet straps to hold it in place. Yours looks much more suitable, and more reliably stable.

[wee willy]

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z223/G4WILjohn01/hivetransport004.jpg

Cheap warehouse truck beefed up axle, golf trolly wheels,removable box (hive/super ) size!

Doesn't double as a hive stand :)
WW


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