Cedar vs Other wood hives

[quote=“Martha”]
I also installed my wax sheets on the frames upside down and now some of my frames are looking like sand dunes but oh well! The bees worked them anyway.[/quote]

Wait what! Wax foundation has an upside down??? Could you expand on this please?

Edit. I like my cedar boxes as they are lighter and from all reports will last longer too.

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It does if it is wired… :blush:

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I don’t understand. Are you having a lend of me???
We’re talking about wax foundation sheets right?
:thinking:

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ermm, yes. I don’t quite understand what you are saying, but let me post a link to a video. Us folks in the US do it all funny (just look at our leader)… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Ok so your wax foundation comes with wire already embedded. I see that right side up but over here we there’s no wire in the wax. So my question is does it matter which side is up? I vaguely remember seeing something about the hexagonals needing to be set in relation to the reverse side. But perhaps I was dreaming…

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Hi Martha,
I currently have 4 active araucaria pine flow hives and 3 active cedar flow hives.
I did observe less wax moth on the bottom boards of the cedars. All over, I seem to observe less of SHB in the cedar ones as well, but it’s hard to say if the colonies coincidentally are more hygienic in those hives or if it’s the cedar.
I asked the flow people once in an email, and they didn’t think there was a difference.
According to my observations, I will stick with the cedar for now. Smells good, is lighter and is sort of more elegant.
Honestly, once you tung oiled a cedar hive, it looks like beautiful furniture.
Elegance is a quality neglected in beekeeping I feel. It becomes all about the honey and who cares what the hives look like.
Time eats away on the hive timber, but it’s always easy to wipe your cedar hive with a tung oil cloth.
All my hives still in boxes are cedar.
I keep good records, so in a year or so I may be able to post to you some better observations.
I now do paint the tops of the cedar roofs with water based house paint, but the roofs I just tung oiled are holding up ok, just need attention after a year out there. I will all paint them with house paint from now on. Looks good too.
No more pine for me.

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Thanks Dawn,

As a novice (my current situation) I bought wired foundation from Brushy Mountain bee farm to fit into my flow frames and they didn’t have a “this side up” instructions so I installed them upside down. Sorry for my lack of proper lingo. Building my own frames was a struggle and I gave it all a great try but with a nice manicure and lack of knowledge my up side down frame creations did not produce the best results. The kind I purchased had wire on both ends with wire longer on one end. After that fiasco I bought some, it’s easier! I’m not saying I won’t try to learn but I am saying I want to give the bees a good start. :smiley:

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Skeggley,

Buying frames and foundation is a challenge to a new beekeeper as the choices are many. I botched up pretty good with the best of intent. There’s wood, plastic, black, white, yellow, wired etc. Using my original flow hive frames was not the best start for a beginning bee keeper. All I can say, is that the frames I strung with wire and that I tried to get really tight ended up with wavy sand dune effects as well in comb formation by the bees. Same with my upside down installed foundation sheets. The bees did not fill out the frames and they are wavy like sand dunes. I bought some! The bees did their best with my novice efforts. :smiley:

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Thanks Webclan,

I did wonder if the wood might make a difference. I love the smell of cedar but purchased the pine hive. My pine hive (treated with tongue oil) did not fair as well in the elements so I just gave them a makeover. My package of bees last year came with a few hive beetles and hence the battle begun and the consideration of wood types. I’m considering another purchase (cedar) if I can get some honey in my current first year hive. I like the hives to look attractive as well for several reasons. My neighbors are less intimidated by the hive if it looks attractive and I find it pleasing to have an attractive looking back yard. The kids seem to get interested as well. Thanks for sharing your observation.

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Ok you convinced me to try it, but only because I don’t have false teeth at this time. But thanks for the heads up and the method on how to insure I don’t eat a moth larvae. :smiley:

Martha, pine should really be painted because of how it weathers. Cedar can be oiled because of how it weathers. If you oil pine you are likely going to get a shorter life (but it does depend on the exposure of your hive to the elements). Also, when painting you really want to apply two to three coats minimum. And don’t forget that when you oil you should be reapplying oil at least once per year (end of season).

Of course, none of the above helps with wax moth and SHB :slight_smile:

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They just got 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of paint. They cleaned up great! They are drying in my garage and when we get a good dry day I’ll give my bees an inspection and change the brood boxes and work the ones they are in. I sealed the flow hive roof better as well. It rains quite a bit here in Tennessee! Thank you for your suggestions. :smiley:

Well, those prongy sticky out bent bits of wire are meant to be trapped by the wedge in the top bar of the frame. If you put the foundation into the frame upside down, the wire ends can prong your fingers and tickle the bees… :smile: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :rofl:

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Ok after much searching I’ve found it, The Housel Theory.
It appears there is a right way up for unwired foundation…

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I cut some mainly sealed brood out of a big frame and put it into a smaller frame and then back in the hive. A few days later I notice the cells seem upside down. Does anyone know if the bees will eventually fix the cells and make them the right way up?

Probably not, unless the comb gets damaged in some way. They don’t really recycle wax - once the main structure is there, it stays pretty much that way.

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Dan, I did some of my own research on that subject after a discussion with @adagna. I don’t think that the bees fix the cells & make them the right way up, however the bees still use the comb when it’s upside down.


We were discussing whether cut-out comb needs to be positioned in the frames with the same orientation. Sometimes it’s more convenient to place it sideways. There will never be a need to place it upside down.

Face down, or horizontal also works.

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Thanks both of you.
So I guess the nectar will flow out if they ever use it for that purpose. I should scrape it back to the foundation at some stage.

Just thinking Dan, I don’t think there’ll be any need to do that. If you decap the frame flush or slightly deeper before extracting the honey, when the bees refill it with honey, they’ll probably correct the last bit of comb before they cap it. Anyway it will be good to see what happens if you leave it as it is.

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Thanks Jeff- I just assumed that they might not get to the capping stage as the nectar might run out of the cells -as they seem to be slightly downward facing, so in other words, they might not get past square one. It is all either brood or empty cells at the moment. I think it could be good to do a test on it as you suggest.