[slimspickin]

Who brands their equipment and what do you use? I made a little 1 in brand out of some 1/16 in flatbar. I use a gnarly turkey fryer burner to heat it up. Here are a couple pictures
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[jrhoto]

Looks good,and didn't cost an arm and a leg.


Poor Valley Bee Farm

 

[Andrew Dewey]

I don't brand - it is not required where I live - though I have thought about it.

I occasionally see branded frames in nucs sold to hobbyists and I've always thought the brands were a good clue as to frames needing replacement.

 

[sqkcrk]

Looks good. I bought a branding iron from Mann Lake. Maybe I should use it. Most brands I see are on the boxes to keep people straight on whose hives belong to who. Brands I see on frames sometimes have a date on them. A brand w. interchangeable numbers would be nice to use on wooden frames.

 

[Honey-4-All]

Is that really homemade? ......... Nice job! WOW!:thumbsup:

 

[Mbeck]

Nice!

I had mine made locally but it's similar.

 

[slimspickin]

Thank you everyone this was just the first one I made I like the idea of putting the year on especially on frames.

 

[slimspickin]

Is that really homemade? ......... Nice job! WOW!:thumbsup:

Yeah I was looking on the net to buy a brand and they were way out of my budget so I went digging is my scrap bin dug the TIG out and stuck it all together I need to redo the "R" it is looking a little goofy. But it was not to bad took maybe 3 hrs or so to make

 

[slimspickin]

I spent three hours today branding and I think I got the hang of it. I was able to do 180 frames and a few other odd ends
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[kilocharlie]

Mine is set up with 2 torches aimed at the iron in a drill press. The table is set up with 3 stops for the boxes. Change boxes, pull the handle down for 3 seconds. I find this saves time, not by moving boxes instead of the iron, but because the time spent changing and locating boxes is automatically time heating the iron when the drill press handle is up and the head of the iron is in the flames.

My iron is also home-made, not one of those cool bronze cast ones from Mann Lake or the guys in Santa Barbara that have their own torch. They are better, just pull the trigger and brand whatever, wherever, whenever by hand.

I do the frames by hand in the frame stapling jig, as it's quicker than the above setup, keeping a propane burner like the one pictured above nearby to lay the torch in when it needs more heat.

Wear eye protection and long, leather, forging furnace gloves if you can find them. If you can't, welding gloves work well, even an oven mitt helps.

You can also drill a hole sideways like a nail hole, then put an ID tag into the side of a box side, hidden below a finger joint. Police can X-ray the box and determine its yours without destroying the box if it ever gets stolen and recovered, even if they sand off your brand and re-brand it. BUSTED!

 

[slimspickin]

Mine is set up with 2 torches aimed at the iron in a drill press. The table is set up with 3 stops for the boxes. Change boxes, pull the handle down for 3 seconds. I find this saves time, not by moving boxes instead of the iron, but because the time spent changing and locating boxes is automatically time heating the iron when the drill press handle is up and the head of the iron is in the flames.

My iron is also home-made, not one of those cool bronze cast ones from Mann Lake or the guys in Santa Barbara that have their own torch. They are better, just pull the trigger and brand whatever, wherever, whenever by hand.

I do the frames by hand in the frame stapling jig, as it's quicker than the above setup, keeping a propane burner like the one pictured above nearby to lay the torch in when it needs more heat.

Wear eye protection and long, leather, forging furnace gloves if you can find them. If you can't, welding gloves work well, even an oven mitt helps.

You can also drill a hole sideways like a nail hole, then put an ID tag into the side of a box side, hidden below a finger joint. Police can X-ray the box and determine its yours without destroying the box if it ever gets stolen and recovered, even if they sand off your brand and re-brand it. BUSTED!

I was wanting to do it in the drill press idea but couldn't figure out what torches to use. Do mind saying what ones you use?

 

[biggraham610]

Nice looking homemade brand....... G

 

[WesternWilson]

I bought a brand off Amazon.com, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GAQFPS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
$65, well made, can have other brands made to put on the tip.

It takes about 15 seconds to do the brand, because you have to rock it a bit to get all the text clearly burnt into the wood.

I brand both inside and outside of all the short sides of all boxes I make, branding before I put them together. It is easy to quickly brand all the short sides. You can read the brand though the two coats of paint I put on them.

I branded the top of each frame (branding before assembly) the first year I had the brand, but found it kind of embarrassing to open up the hive and see my name and phone number on each frame! So now I brand one of the side pieces so that each frame has my name and number, but on the side, where it is not so obvious.

I am not sure if branding deters thieves, but my theory is they will at least feel guilty every time they see my name on equipment they stole from me!