What are you building during winter down time?

[Bob Wilson]

Lesgold is working with his comb honey. I built some needed nucs and am about to build another long langstroth out of 2X10 boards. What are you building?

[TheHoneyPump]

Fat reserves, and snowmen. :)

[Ben Framed]

Fat reserves, and snowmen. :)

[BeeMaster2]

A wood working shop. My brother and I built a 42? long table on the back wall. It will have a sliding miter saw in the middle, router tables on both sides of it and we will have various other equipment that will bee stored on the shelves below the table that can bee put on the table. We are putting a polyurethane finish on the top.
We also put kitchen cabinets on a 30? wall with a plywood counter top.
Jim Altmiller

[Lesgold]

Well it?s not winter here but we have just had our longest day of the year which means winter is approaching. Just starting a build on some slotted bottom boards. A guy out here in Oz. has been building an insert that has a series of curves which drop into 3mm slots. I?ve been using a few of them for a couple of years now. They work well in my area. They provide very good ventilation and the bottom boards remain spotless and never need cleaning. Initially I thought that they would let a lot of small hive beetles into the hive through the slots but this is not the case. The bees actually chase the beetles out through these slots. Beetle numbers appear to be slightly less than in my other hives. I don?t use beetle control methods on these hives. There is a claim that this type of bottom board increases honey production. (Many producers of beekeeping equipment make claims like this) All I can say is that the hives that have these boards attached are always strong and produce well. Sorry if this sounds like a bit of a sales pitch but it?s not meant to be. The only negative that I can find so far is the time it takes me to construct the bottom boards. I make them from cypress pine which is a termite and rot resistant timber. It?s a pain to work with as it?s quite brittle and doesn?t like being nailed or screwed without pilot holes. The end result is a bottom board that will last for years. Will post some pics when I get one together.

Cheers

Les