Branding BeeBoxes.

Now that I am a registered beekeeper I need to have my brand on all hives/boxes...I have 1x 2 decker hive but we were given a few other boxes with it so maybe 7 all up.  The brand has to be so many cm under the surface of the box and I have been wondering how to do this.  A couple of people suggested making a brand from wire but I hadn't gotten around to trying it yet.

Easter Sunday morning I went out and when we got home husband was busy outside the shed. 


 What could he be up to now.







Yay, he has made me a brand.

 I asked about it and he said that he'd tries making one from wire but wasn't happy with it so decided to weld one up for me.  He has welded onto a piece of metal, basically just melting the welding rod into the shape of the letters he needed.  

 So now, the test. Start with a bare box, heat brand,

                         Apply brand to box

 Wait for smoke to clear and...OK, maybe slightly heavy handed but underneath that burnt wood is my branded box.

 

My turn, my turn..I heat the brand using his gas burner.  Next time we will light a fire and heat the brand in the coals but today we wanted quick and easy.

That IS NOT my can!!

 Grandaughter helps by using a wirebrush to clean them up a bit.

 Branded!  How good am I.  OK, him, how good is him.

Thanks Babe, You are a great help to me and this bee keeping thing isn't half as hard as you said it would be. 

The boxes still need to be painted and one day soon I, he, we, will do that.