Cathedral TopBar Hive Progress

Approaching mid-summer and looking out for signs of swarming. One hive looks like a supersede queen cell is being made in mid comb so its best left undisturbed. Another hive cropped of my first honey of the season. The 2 combs were removed and the top half  taken while the lower drawn comb was reattached to the bar using a hair slide calliper. A colony that was shaken down into a top bar out of a flat topbarhive is building comb well and looks healthy - I have been supplementing food for them.
I had intended introducing a Nicot cage but due to a clumsy calamity with my smoker setting alight my wood shavings close to the Nicot frame it rapidly distorted and became unusable. I am going to have to replace it right away if the queen breeding idea is to go ahead.

A very full hive

Combe being drawn out

Foundation being drawn from the bottom up

The queen spotted on this comb to the far right

Cold Moulded Ply Dinghy nearing completion

Items soon to be completed on this build:
Seating, timbers beneath the seats.
Attaching knees with coppernails and roves
Fabricate a pair of oars
Rubbing strips of brass or stainless steel to keel.
Sand and preparation for varnish  /  paint.

Floor timbers beneath seats will be steamed and glued into position tapering to a feather edge on top of the existing.

Ply hull is 1/2 in. thick 

Rear seats to be widened and rounded on edge

Dinghy progress and somewhere to venture

Having just added gunnels with their capping of Sycamore and the stem and stern knees, this little craft is beginning to look quite robust. The hull gives a bell like sound if knocked with a knuckle - perhaps the largest wooden bell in the UK !
Next will come the seats and some timbers beneath them, to add rigidity where the trailer meets amidships. Most trips in useage will require towing to a launch site. The local estuaries include the Dart, Teign, Exe and even more appealing is the Salcombe / Kngsbridge Estuary or Ria; unusual because it has no large river feeding it, just a series of small streams from Frogmore, Bowcombe, Batson, East Allington, Sherford and other surrounding villages, rising at springs some 140 metres above sea level.
The Salcombe-Kingsbridge Estuary is tidal up as far as Kingsbridge, the bridging point five miles inland. Like the other estuaries of South Devon, the original deep river valley has been inundated by later sea level rise, with the tide flooding in to create a wide expanse of water. 

I am now  more confident I shall complete by mid July.

 

Seat riser wedged in place

Beginning to firm up with knees in place

Rowlock cheeks added

Transom knee

Dinghy off the mould

Free of the mould at last and ready for the inside cleaning up and preparations to fit the seats.
Beach Bros market a filler Bona Mix and Fill that is intended for use on wood flooring. The liquid mixes with wood dust to form a filler of the correct colour and will serve to seal the grain and indents caused by the staples and their removal.
Scraping and smoothing off the surface inside is slowing progress but hopefully she will be afloat by August.

Mould parted from the hull

Rope amidships to prevent beam spreading

Cleaning up but not yet sanded smooth

Adding on the inwhale

Cathedral TopBar Hive Issues

Now into June and as you would expect the colonies are working at a frantic level to bring home the pollen and nectar and keep all those young ones well fed and watered.

Meanwhile here below is the Video Phil made on his inspection a little while ago: