I painted mine, and must have given them 4 coats as I anticipate the edges get a lot of wear when prying with the hive tool. After a couple of weeks I put the boxes on each other and they still stuck. I now smear a thin film of wax polish to stop them sticking, works great.
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Your right in thinking the edges of a box get a lot of hard wear. I wonder if your boxes stuck together by the bees sealing up any gap rather than the paint not having dried out in a couple of weeks. I use acrylic paint that is touch dry in under an hour, re-coat in 2 hours and a 3rd coat the same day as the first, A day to dry and in use the next. I use white fencing paint bought from Mitre10, seems a good product but really needs 3 coats for a good cover. Unless of course we get some rain slowing the drying time — I wish. I shouldn’t complain as in the past couple of weeks I have had some handy rainfalls.
Cheers
No, that’s before they were in use Peter. It was the paint that stuck, not the bees. It could be that the four coats, even when painted 24 hour apart, they take much longer to cure. I give one oil based undercoat, then 3 coats water based Cabot’s Exterior Timber & Deck paint, which is very hardwearing.
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I have done all my pine box’s with it and use it in place of creosote for poles in ground.
Stops the rot…that is what kills bee box’s.
Yes, you’re right Wilfred. I was reading your old posts, and see that you only treat the outside. I can live with that.
But that’s why I like cedar boxes. It has anti-rot properties built in. I have cedar weatherboards and they lasted really well with minimal maintenance.