I recently found that I have spelled this blog with an extra L in the name. I have therefore generated a new blog with the correct name and I will continue writing here. Link to new blog by clicking the blog name below Mead Of Life
Ok, I will continue the blog here using the correct blog name. Silly, how could I have missed the extra l for such a long time ?????. Both blogs are called Mead of Life and eventually both should should appear when searching in google. Anyway, now it is time for a little experiment – making mead liquor. From Wikipedia I found a graph under ethanol relating alcohol percentage vs temperature. Notice that the Ethanol content is in % by mass. Converting is easy: 15.0% by volume in 1 L is 150ml Ethanol/1000ml total volume. 150ml of ethanol weighs 150ml x 0.789g/ml = 118.35g. The 1000ml-150ml = 850ml of water weighs […]
Just saw that an L had sneaked into the web name of the blog. Please continue tomeadloflife.blogspot.dk
Sunday, it was time to bottle the meads. I had purchased 1L flasks and stoppers in Ikea since this was the cheapest I could find. The volume is somewhat large, but it keeps the number of bottles to a minimum. All bottles was rinsed in hot water before use. Notice the bottle in front. You can see the mark from the sticker Ikea uses. The glue does not come off easily. I usually manage by soaking the glue in dish-washing soap and then I can easily wash off the glue. But for some reason I had to rub with frying oil to get the glue off and then wash the […]
I have continued the weighing of the hive. During the short warm period the bees got really active. But then the weather changed and and a colder and more rainy period. The weather has been like this ever since. These changes in weather are clearly visible in the weight loss of the hive In the graph of the total weight of the hive a small drop is seen and then the slope becomes identical to the slope during the winter. This becomes much clearly visible in the graph “Weight loss per day” where the bees for a short period of time used about 135 g/day and then went back to […]
Yesterday I did yet another weighing of the hive – 22.22 kg. In the graph it looks like just a slight deviation on the graph But if you calculate the daily weight loss, it becomes quite apparent that something has happened. The weight loss is calculated as an average daily weight loss since the last weighing. If the time between weighing is long (several weeks) the results will be a poor guide to the activity in the hive. For practical reasons I do not expect to do measurements much more than once a week. The last point is an average of 6 days. So what happened? Spring is on it […]
Today I did yet another weighing of the hive: 22.86 kg. Plotting this with the previous data I get a steady 39,1 g/day – or 40 g/day in round numbers. I am looking for a significant change in slope that will indicate that the bees have become active. Then it is time to check the hive from the inside.