Episode 111: Exciting News and Rising Temperatures

Hi I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 111 of my podcast Beekeeping Short and sweet. So this week I’ll reveal the exciting news I have for you and with rising temperatures outside clipped queens have been both a blessing and a conundrum, they just don’t always do what you read in the books!Catch up with my latest podcast hereI’m grateful to Honey Paw hives for sponsoring in part our podcasts for this season.Honey Paw hives are, as I’m sure you’re aware, Poly Langstroth hives and we’re setting up an apiary full of their hives this season courtesy of Honey Paw. Check out their range of hives and other equipment on their website, I’ll leave a link to their website in the show notes as usual.Honey Paw Hives - Designed by Beekeepers, For Beekeepers.Welcome back everybody, especially to everyone who continues to get the very latest podcasts each week as they are released, if you’d like to be first to hear the weekly podcast pop over to my patreon page and check out the podcast tier.Last week I threw out a teaser about some exciting news and I posted a picture of the event on my patreon page just a couple of days ago. And that news is, I’ve finally got too fed up with falling over my own feet in the honey extraction room that I’ve signed the lease on a small commercial unit here in Norwich and have been moving in over the last seven days. It’s a personal milestone for me and something I’ve been hoping to do for some time. The unit is situated just a 15 minute walk away from my home. It means I can gather up all of my essential equipment together and not end up scratching my head trying to figure out where I left the last box of jars or have to drive to the workshop to count up how many sheets of brood foundation I have for my Langstroth hives.The very best part is that I can now set out the honey room section of the unit in the best possible configuration to make the process of uncapping and extracting honey as easy as I can and that should really see a lot of time and frustration.  The grand plan is to section off the rear of the unit into the honey extraction area so that can be kept clean for honey and food production as I’m hoping to get back on track with some of the other products we used to produce. The front of the unit has a roller shutter door as well as a standard door entrance and that’s been really useful for brining in all of the equipment but will also be great for moving in the heavy honey supers without having to negotiate a doorway that’s not quite big enough without scraping my knuckles on the door frame. I can see it will be quite chilly in the Winter so a portioned wall and teaching room that will double up as an office for me is also on the wish list but that will have to wait as the cost of building the stud walls is beyond me currently. If there are any builders listening that fancy swapping a days work for a days mentoring do get in touch, although I do have a very good friend who is a top notch builder/plasterer so I’m hoping I can get him over to price up the job.Next week is honey extraction week so I’ll go through putting on the clearer boards and what types I use and why and I’ll report back on exactly how we get on with actual honey extracted in a couple of weeks.I hope you are also enjoying a Spring nectar flow and your supers are filling up with golden honey to reward you for all your work with your own bees.Well, that’s it for this week, have a great beekeeping week, Stay safe and Please do remember to check out my Patreon page where you can access lots more content, that’s www.patreon.com/norfolk honey.I’m Stewart Spinks and that was Beekeeping Short and Sweet.Support the show