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Author Topic: Pros and Cons of painting the inside of a hive body.  (Read 8658 times)

Offline Farm 779

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Re: Pros and Cons of painting the inside of a hive body.
« Reply #20 on: February 28, 2013, 01:43:04 pm »
I use bee wax as T Beek described. I heat up the wood with a weed burner to enable the wood to soak up wax and finish the wood with a slightly burnt appearance (which hardens the wood).

Farm 779
Lazy Mountain, Alaska

Offline CapnChkn

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Re: Pros and Cons of painting the inside of a hive body.
« Reply #21 on: February 28, 2013, 10:47:13 pm »
Unless I've been terribly misinformed, Bees don't just use the propolis to fill cracks, they varnish the entire interior.  As far as latex paint, it wouldn't hurt the bees, they'll just chew it off.  I've also been waxing the outside of my boxes, unless there's paint on it already, then I paint.
"Thinking is like sin, them that doesn't is scairt of it, and them that does gets to liking it so much they can't quit!"  -Josh Billings.

Offline T Beek

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Re: Pros and Cons of painting the inside of a hive body.
« Reply #22 on: March 01, 2013, 06:21:44 am »
I've found that bees tend to put propolis everywhere I don't want it  :shock:, so I pretty much gave up removing it from every thing and now collect a little bit for sale.........its worth some dough and easy to harvest.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2013, 11:51:46 am by T Beek »
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Offline fshrgy99

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Re: Pros and Cons of painting the inside of a hive body.
« Reply #23 on: March 02, 2013, 10:26:48 am »
Haven't been a beek for long but I have made a bit of outdoor furniture. For the furniture I bought a gallon of rosewood oil (expensive though) and it did a great job. Since I had it around I used it on my boxes too but only the outside. Time will tell.
Have also used Sikkens Cetol (on cedar furniture) which does a good job and will use the rest of that when the oil is used up. Also expensive.
Have left the interior natural for the bees. I like the idea of waxing them a lot.
Did I mention that I hate peeling paint?

Offline Bee Happy

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Re: Pros and Cons of painting the inside of a hive body.
« Reply #24 on: March 02, 2013, 10:21:52 pm »
I've seen evidence of my bees propolizing the SHB into tight spaces.
I saw something about the Australian stingless bees having a strong tendency to do that, so I went outside and showed the video to mine - seems they got the message. (You know this bit's facetious, right?)
They HAVE been showing a tendency to corner and trap the SHB though, and when I open the hive I wind up turning the SHB loose if I can't squish them quick. ...If bees could roll their eyes.

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Offline jredburn

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Re: Pros and Cons of painting the inside of a hive body.
« Reply #25 on: March 03, 2013, 02:04:48 pm »
Common wisdom says don't paint the inside.  This was probably good advice when the only paint we had was made with Lead.  Since Latex -paint was invented a long time later, no one every tried it on the inside.
However, if you coat the inside with Latex, the SHB hate it.  They will not lay their eggs in Latex painted wood.  I had 7 hives painted and the bees could not have cared less.  They will live in steel drums, old cars, clay pots, plastic water meter boxes,  out in the open on tree limbs, etc.  I live in SW Florida and SHB are a very real problem.  My seven hives did very well for the two months I had them in painted boxes.  Then a bear got them.
The SHB also hate light,  so if you put a translucent top cover on the hive, throw away the inner cover and put on a screened bottom board, you will have eliminated 90 % of the places they can lay their eggs.  The only place left is in the comb and the bees are all over that.
BTW the paint was not my idea originally, it comes from a friend of mine who is head of the ethomolgy dept at a large univer sity on the Left Coast.
FWIW
Regards
Joe

Offline RHBee

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Re: Pros and Cons of painting the inside of a hive body.
« Reply #26 on: March 03, 2013, 03:35:21 pm »
Thanks Joe,
Sorry to hear about the bear. I'm gonna try the paint on the worst of my hive bodies.  The problem with using recycled wood is that it's some times warped. I have no boards that are 6 5/8" wide so I have to rip and join to make the correct width. This can create a gap the length of the body.
I put a 2" board all around the outside to create a single body. This also serves as a hand hold for lifting. All parts have tight bond III applied liberally.
Later,
Ray

 

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