In this episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping, Laurence Edwards (Black Mountain Honey) compares two common hive‑securing straps: a standard 6‑meter polyester ratchet strap (sourced from Handy Straps) and a beekeeping‑specific span‑set (or "beekeeping") strap. He explains how each strap works, shows close‑up demonstrations of fitting and tensioning, and evaluates them on cost, durability, ease of use, colour, webbing thickness, and tension capacity. Edwards reports a ~1 % failure rate for the cheap ratchet straps (70 p each in bulk) versus a higher per‑unit cost (£4‑£6) for the span‑set, which he finds fiddly and less robust. He concludes the inexpensive, black polyester ratchet strap is his preferred choice for most beekeepers, citing its low price, high tensile strength (up to 800 kg), long length (fits up to seven supers), and simple operation. The video ends with a call to subscribe and a reminder to hit the notification bell.
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Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping and another episode of Bite-Sized Bees. So today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about ratchet straps. I've got the standard ratchet strap that I use and you see on all of my hives here, and then I've got the, the proper official beekeeping strap that I know a lot of beekeepers use to secure their hives. So in this video, I'm just going to talk to you a little bit about these 2 different straps. How they work, how much they cost, which one I think is best. So we'll start off with the standard ratchet strap that I always use. Now I know a lot of beekeepers really, really don't like these ratchet straps. I think it's because they find them unreliable and they can be a little bit snaggy. And I definitely agree with the snagginess, like it cuts holes in your fingers and your gloves quite easily. But I find these are really, really reliable. I think over the last 6 years I've had about 3 of these fail, and I've had maybe 200 or 300 of them. So like a 1% failure rate. And no doubt these will degrade because they've got the metal component and they will rust, but I work out that I get these for about 70p each when I buy them in bulk, and they're probably costing me like £2 or £3 if you buy them on their own. I can stick up a link. I buy them from a company called Handy Straps. They do really, really good quality 6-meter-long straps in a 25mm band. So it's this polyester is where it often fails as well. And I've had one of the old variants of the straps, not from Handy Straps, that completely came apart, started degrading with the UV. And that was a really annoying place for it to fail because I wasn't sure that it was going to fail. But the black ones, these ones, they're absolutely rock solid. I've had these ones for about 3 or 4 years now and they're not even coming close to failing. The fact they're costing me 70p each though When they do fail, I can recycle them, get some new ones into action. So what I like about these ratchet straps is they're long. You can fit up to like 7 supers in them. They're really quick and easy to use. All you do is you just thread the loop through there like that, take it down to whatever size you want, and then you just ratchet up together like that. And you get an incredible amount of tension in here. It holds up to 800 kilos, this one. It's enough tension to easily crush a polystyrene box, as I've done on numerous occasions. So just don't pull it down too tight when you're strapping them up. To open it, all you do is you just push on these 2 springs, and then that releases the strap, and you can just pull it out again like that. So I'll do a couple of close-ups of that and show you exactly how it works. But I really like these. They've got a nice strong metal ratchet action, good webbing, 6 meters long, nice color, black, so they're inconspicuous. And they're really cheap. My personal opinion, you can't go wrong with these. I know a lot of beekeepers and a lot of bee farmers do have issues with them though. So then the alternative and the standard which is used throughout a lot of beekeeping is this design here. So this is called a span set ratchet, and it's just a piece of metal and you ratchet it up using a cantilever action to get the tension into the webbing. Now the first thing I'll say about this is I hate the color of them, like I, I don't want a big garish orange strap around my beehive. I want something a little bit more inconspicuous, black or a dark blue or something like that. Not keen on the color at all. The webbing is nowhere near as thick as the one that I've got, so this is probably about 15mm, whereas the one I've got there is, is about 20mm. Oh, the webbing on this, considerably better built. I think this one is a little bit more flimsy, and I think that one will wear down a little bit more. I know people have said to me that this is really simple to put together, and I've had a go on these, and I've got a couple of these that I've used from a few years ago. I really don't like the action of these. I find them fiddly, and I find them a little bit more difficult to put together than these. Like, they're pretty simple to put together, they tighten up really well. Don't get me wrong, these will secure your poly hive or any hive that you've got with enough tension, more than enough tension to crush a poly hive on this as well. I just find the whole process of putting these on a little bit more fiddly than using the other ratchet strap like that. The other negative that I have with these is the cost. So these cost like £4 or £5 each. I think the metal is a little bit flimsy as well. I think the older version that I have of this was considerably better built. I reckon I could break that, and I reckon I'd probably break it within a couple of years. And the fact that these cost like £5 or £6 each versus 70p, I'd have to get through about 7 of them before I've actually paid for one of these. So in terms of a cost-benefit analysis, I'm going to stick with these, but for the purpose of this video, I'm just going to give you that comparison. So I'll just show you how these both work now, how you put them around the hive, and how you tension them up. So I find the ratchet straps super, super easy. You just get it into position, push it through the loop, pull it like that, get rid of all of the excess material. This excess material comes in handy when you're stacking high, and then all I do is I ratchet to close. And it's as simple as that. Really nice tension. You can strap down a couple more like that. I like to keep this on the top, out the way of any water. And then all I do is I just put this together, tuck it underneath the top like that. That's my system, and that's the ratchet strap that I use. Now, I find this strap really fiddly to use. I just don't like it at all. So it's cantilever design. The loop goes over this bit here. I'll do a couple of close-ups so you can see. You put your strap in there and then you return it back through that hole there. You bring it so it's hand tight and then you roll that all the way over. The reason I don't like this is a bit of guesswork involved. So if you bring it tight like that, And then you go, it's too tight, so then you have to bring it back a little bit and like adjust it and say, right, that's probably about right. And again, that's not tight, that's too tight again, so bring it back a little bit more. You get it to just about the right tension, and I guess you probably get the knack of this after a while. And then you bring that down and then you slot both of them through that gap there like that. And then that's the hive secure. And it is secure, it's really tight. You can fine-tune it a little bit, but you're fine-tuning it before you know how tight it's going to be. So it does work, and you can see it's kind of putting a little bit of damage on the poly there. So it is nice and tight. You can get up to 400 kilos in terms of weight on this, so way more than you're ever going to get in terms of a honey crop. But yeah, I'm just not a massive fan of these. So that's it for the video. Like I say, I've got a clear preference there. I know that a lot of people disagree with me on that one. I bought both of these ratchet straps with my own money, and I'm just giving you my honest review and recommendation for what I find the easiest to use, the most durable, the cheapest product. So I hope you enjoyed the video. Please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time.
