This is me getting ready to expand the apiary to do some pollination. We have lots of Don's bees, and lots of equipment. We are building pallets. We are making splits. We are considering purchasing a trailer to drag these things.
But we need to identify our hives by markers other than our colors (white, and Ballerina Pink, per my kids....those things will stand out!!). We need to properly mark our hives for identification so that they are easily recognized and loaded in the almonds. Ahhhh....the almonds.
So our latest purchase is a branding iron we purchased at Branding Irons Unlimited for the above-referenced amount. This iron measures about 2.5 inches tall and 6 inches wide, and has our name emblazoned, literally, on the fronts of all our boxes. Our hope is that we get enough relief (as in the art term) that the letters read through the paint, and we can fill the recesses with black paint for the name to stand out. Admittedly an expensive experiment, by cool nevertheless.
Not sure you can see the smoke in this photo, but the thing gets HOT. We will continue to figure out how to best time and heat the iron for the most visible effect. The thing weighs about 8 lbs so you can leave it on the board and its weight will provide enough contact for the four minutes we leave it in place. NOTE that we are doing this with plenty of ventilation and 100% supervision...heat is a bitch and we have already had one fire here.
Jeff.
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