Awards for All

[gavin]

Certainly worth considering Calum. I don't remember costing an extractor into the proposal, but it may be possible to divert some funds. For example, we're still to decide whether we need a new shed or whether relocating a second hand one on offer may be feasible.

G.

[Calum]

I shed for bees ? Or for meetings? Also what we do have which is great is a industrial dough maker, great for making up cake feed (? dont know what to call in in english) 6 kg honey mixed with 10kg sugar powder - great for feeding apedias and nucs.. And a wax press. But it is expensive, and easy to damages, so everyone relies on everyone else looking after it.

[gavin]

The shed would be mostly for storing equipment - nucs, queen raising bits and pieces, spare boxes - and also maybe somewhere to sit to do fiddly things, and to keep records? Perhaps also somewhere to use the association microscope, or at least to store it.

The bees will be outside of course. Although a bee house sounds nice the function of the apiary is to teach and experiment and breed, so it would be a bit too unusual for us here.

Most people here who use fondant buy it in in blocks of around 12.5kg from bakery wholesalers - sounds like the best way to do it. Wax press sounds good though.

[Jon]

We have a guy in our BKA with a wax press and he does a swap of wax for foundation every spring.

[Calum]

going for that myself this year too we have a guy that charges 2,50€/kg including heat treating to kill foul brood. but he only takes batches of min 6kg so people with 3-4 colonies can save up for a couple of years..... like i said it is toughest for beginners, or people with less than 4 colonies or less than 800-1000€ honey crop / year.