Paint, water-sealer, or something else??

[charlotte]

Hello all!
Looking at wood preservation of the hive bodies/supers...

Those of you that paint your hives, what type of paint do you use?? 
Does the type of paint matter, other than being exterior paint?

Does anyone use a waterproofing / sealer instead, like you use on decks?  How does that hold up?

Anybody use something different??

I would love to try the rosin & parrafin, but don't know what I would use to dip them in, and how to control the temperature, as I am aware it is very flammable.. :-\

Thanks in advance for any and all input!!

[Kathyp]

i buy ooops paint from home depot, or similar.  5 dollars a gallon.  latex paint.

[pdmattox]

I use exterior oil based and have an couple of colors. Lime green and white. 

[Bee-Bop]

I use yard sale paint, what ever color, mix all the half empty gts, & gallons of latex together !
WoW what a color !! Do the same with oil paint, again Wow what colors.  :shock:

Most is free, people want to get rid of it.

Leave them air dry outside for at least a week, the longer the better.

Bee-Bop

Don't worry so much about every little thing, It's a hobby, have fun !!!   :)

[charlotte]

Good thoughts bee-bop, I have some old stuff in the garage collecting dust, might as well put some of it to use :-D

Thanks!

[bmacior]

I'm going to wax and rosin.  I've bought a food grade 55 gallon barrel that I'm going to cut down.  Hopefully it won't be oversized and require a whole lot of wax to accomplish the purpose.

[charlotte]

Food grade.. Meaning some sort of stainless steel or something?  Could you use plastic and just "dip" the hive parts in the hot liquid?  Maybe I am mistaken, but I thought you had to "boil" the hive parts in the mixture :? If it just involves dipping, I think I could make that work...  So are you dipping the pieces and then putting it together after?

Thanks! I would really like to try this.  To me, having invested the time & money, I would like to make it last & look nice too! :-D 

[Bee-Bop]

Charlotte;
You are correct on the boiling/high temp.of the rosin & wax, then you have to soak the hives, by weighting them down for a length of time so the wood becomes impregnated.

There are several sites that give instructions and pictures of the operation,
Micheal Bush has done some maybe he can actually give you first hand info.

Bee-Bop

[bmacior]

The barrels I bought had high fructose corn syrup in them.  I wouldn't think you'd want to use a barrel of unknown history when your bees and honey would be exposed to whatever the wax might pick up.  The barrels are steel, though not stainless.  My 10 frame won't fit into them when in the normal position (top open), but will if placed on either the long or short side .  An 8 frame should fit when in the top open position.  Reading MB's site, doesn't give me the impression that they have to soak after the 10 minute boiling time.  I would think boiling them for 10 minutes would be all the time needed for the wax to penetrate the wood.  Found the barrels by doing a search on one of the local TV channels internet classifieds.

[BjornBee]

I love the ooops paint. Exterior latex. Two coats.

My full size hives are mainly painted white (Some of the farms I keep bees on are on an "apple tour program", one is a B/B, and several are working farm markets with pick your own and tours. They like the look of neat white boxes, and its probably what many have come to expect over the years.

My mating boxes are all different colors.

[hollybees]

Charlotte,

This is my 1st year, but I used a cedar color deck stain it's really easy to use.
I like the Idea of stain because it absorbs into the wood and it won't peel off like paint.

Can't say how long it will hold up we'll see.........

Good luck,
Paul

[Michael Bush]

>Those of you that paint your hives, what type of paint do you use??
Does the type of paint matter, other than being exterior paint?

I've painted a lot of them in the past before I quit and then I quit painting at all until I started dipping.  Any exterior paint will do.  When I started Latex paint was not in common use and they were painted with exterior oil enamel.  Later as latex became common I used that.  Then I got lazy and quite painting.  Then I bought a lot of new equipment because I was expanding and decided to try to protect that investment more with wax and rosin.

>Does anyone use a waterproofing / sealer instead, like you use on decks?  How does that hold up?

I tried Thomson's Water Seal and I tried unpigmented exterior latex paint.  both still turn gray eventually.  The Water Seal has a strong smell of fumes for some time.  I would only use it on the outside and I wasn't that impressed altogether.

>Anybody use something different??

Beeswax and rosin.

>I would love to try the rosin & parrafin, but don't know what I would use to dip them in, and how to control the temperature, as I am aware it is very flammable.. Undecided

You control the heat like you would frying with a panful of grease on your stove.  If you let the grease (or the paraffin) get too hot they will, of course, catch on fire, so you put a thermometer in and you NEVER leave it unattended.  If it ever starts to smoke turn it off and double check the thermometer.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesdipping.htm

[charlotte]

Thank you everyone for the info!  I have a metal drum down in our shed that I checked out tonight, that I think may work..have to cut it down though, & check measurments, etc.  I have a turkey fryier gas powered stand that I think would work well too. I have a beek neighbor/friend..going to see if he has some stuff he'd like to dip too.  Good excuse for a dippin' party! :mrgreen:

Have a great weekend! (what's left anyway!)

[Michael Bush]

I try to keep mine no hotter than 250 F.  That's pretty much my target, but it gets a few more or less degrees as you add boxes etc.   I bought the rosin from Mann Lake and I bought paraffin and never used it.  I used Beeswax and rosin instead instead.