I’m restoring some bee boxes at the moment. Some were really bad, some not so bad. After sanding back to bare wood & replacing the rotted parts with donated wood from hoop pine furniture, I’m soaking them in copper naphthenate. Then after that is completely dry, I’ll bog up any gaps before giving them 3 coats of paint inside & out.
I’d say that this next photo shows the most extreme restoration, the box contains 58 screws in total.
Love your work @JeffH Seems a shame to paint over the patchwork quilt of timber. I reckon a coat of stain and they will be fit to be a piece of art in anyones gallery.
Thank you Rod, I reminded myself many times that it only cost $30 to buy new ones 
It must be the eccentric, ocd side of me that made me ignore that fact.
I like to see the frugal approach that you take too Jeff. Also see that you buck the trend of the newer beekeepers and paint inside and out. I reckon you need to add a photo of that too…
Adam
LOL, that is kind of Crazy Jeff- but hey: ‘waste not want not’.
Is that tank you are dipping the hives in made of maetal? If so that would serve well for hot wax dipping ‘shallow fry’ style.
You need a bigger shed.
Thank you Adam, I don’t see any harm in painting the insides of hives. The only thing I suggest to people is to wait until the smell has passed before using them for bees. Plus I want to put a good covering over the copper naphthenate. I will add a photo when I’m all finished in a couple of months. It takes me just under a day to treat each box @ around 5hrs per side.
@Semaphore, that is my honey warming tank. It holds 2 buckets. I plan to have it ready for the start of winter. It was a co-incidence that it holds a bee box nicely on it’s side.
@busso, I agree, I need A shed
Hi Adam, it’s been nearly 2 months. About 1.5 kilos of tradie’s box, plastibond, 11 litres of quality paint later, here’s my finished products. I don’t skimp on quality of paint these days. 31 boxes plus 9 lids & 9 bottom boards.
Painted 3 coats, inside & out.
I still have to screw & silicone some whitegood panels that I’ve cut up to the lids.
They look great and I’m sure will last many years to come.
Thanks Adam, while I was soaking the boxes in the copper naphthenate, a bloke asked me if I’d get 5 years out of them. I told him I’d be expecting more like 30 years.
I checked on the lid of that hive in the photo, it has a piece of whitegood panel on top. I smear silicone around the cut edges.
Sign me into your will then! 
Actually, David is telling me that he is going to live to 150 yrs old minimum, so sign us both in! 
Just kidding @JeffH. We both love you being around in the flesh, but we always respect your work. 
Hi Dawn, many thanks. In 30 years, I’ll be just over a hundred. Probably too old to be keeping bees by then. It’s funny someone came to us to buy honey because their previous beekeeper got admitted into a nursing home. I saw the funny side of it. It would have been sad if he had a stroke or something. What I thought was humorous was the possibility of someone working his bees right up to the end.
Enjoying your pics Jeff, and how we can get by doing our bee keeping. But wouldn’t it be great to have @busso come visit the East coast for a holiday and bring his tools with him. I’m one that could do with a Busso style shed so I can reclaim my kitchen:grinning:
Cheers to you and Wilma.
Cheers to you also Peter. It would be good to get Busso over here, even without his tools
@busso’s brain is his greatest tool, in my very humble opinion. 
Come on @JeffH, @Peter48 and @Dawn_SD your flattery is welcomed but any more of that, in this weather and I won’t get my Beanie on, as my head will just be toooo big.
Wow Jeff… I can’t take my eyes off your restored boxes. I was going to nominate you for Australian of the Year.
But then I changed my mind, haha. What’s that copper naphthenate that you are using there mate? Are you sure that is ok to use in bee boxes?
A few years ago I was going to make some veggie garden beds out of timber treated with it, but it turned out it can’t be used for growing edible veggies. I know yours is a different application, but would still be concerned. Apparently it is not even well studied. Hopefully the paint will seal it properly.
Still… those restored boxes, wow. Maybe I’ll still nominate you after all.
Type copper naphthenate in the search box top right corner. There is plenty about it.
Thanks busso, I did. There seems to be a consensus that it is safe in bee boxes. That took me by surprise I have to say. I only looked into it once regarding veggie planters, and couldn’t be used.
I probably still avoid using it, but then I’m a bit of a new age hippie.
Many years ago I helped a commercial bee keeper out in making 100 hive boxes and his practice was to soak the new boxes in a trough of copper naphthenate and mineral turps for about 15 seconds and a couple of days later they were painted. They were then left for a week before using them. That was the first I had come across using it on bee hives so I assume he knew it wasn’t going to kill his bees but I guess the trick was in a good covering of paint, which he did to the whole box. Doing that would certainly extend the life of the timber.
Amazing how many boxes I come across that are not painted in the edges which is a great place for any rain water to sit and soak into the wood, to me it is a ‘no-brainer’ to paint the edges while doing the outside of a box.
Cheers
