Monthly Archives: January 2026

Damn! That tree has snapped right off in the storm

Posted on January 8, 2026 by james

Or so I thought. Completely snapped. Must be at least 200mm diameter. But no, it just got snapped off here. Still, it’s all good firewood, eh? Wouldn’t be surprised if the rest came down in the next decent storm we … Continue reading →

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Meet my new DIY swarm collection box

Posted on January 8, 2026 by james

I’ve used cardboard boxes for years. They do the job, but they’re not exactly very tolerant of the occasional rain shower and if I’ve not used one for a while it seems to disappear to be used for other purposes. … Continue reading →

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Honey shipping boxes

Posted on January 8, 2026 by james

I needed some boxes for shipping jars of honey in the post and wasn’t really confident that just cardboard would do the job. So I made these to contain bubble-wrapped jars instead.

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Damn! The world disappeared

Posted on January 8, 2026 by james

Sometimes I’m not sure that isn’t a good thing 😀

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More clearer boards incoming

Posted on January 8, 2026 by james

I needed some more clearer boards. It’s tempting to stack all the supers in an apiary together to clear them, but in some cases I just don’t have the space (or anywhere remotely level), so I needed some more clearer … Continue reading →

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New honey labels

Posted on January 8, 2026 by james

Rather than using pre-printed labels for my jars of honey as sold by the likes of Thorne’s I wanted something a little more special. Something unique to me and that tells a little bit of a story about the contents … Continue reading →

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If you think what happened yesterday was in any way excusable

Posted on January 8, 2026 by james

Then you have nothing left in common with a human being. That is all.

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Skoda Octavia lock failure #1

Posted on January 7, 2026 by james

Joy of joys, the front passenger door would not unlock on our 2012 Skoda Octavia. I’m mostly the only person who uses it so that didn’t seem such a major deal, but it turns out to be an MOT fail … Continue reading →

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So how does this perry stuff work then?

Posted on January 7, 2026 by james

I’ve not come across anyone with perry pears until recently, but in the Autumn I was offered the opportunity to pick some from a tree in a local orchard. I’ve pressed them and put them in a fermenter, but information … Continue reading →

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Unrecognised beekeeping kit

Posted on January 7, 2026 by james

I found these in a pile of old kit that was given to me. Really not sure what they are. Best I can come up with is that they might be travel screens, but they seem a little over-engineered for … Continue reading →

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