Finishing oil or paint on the hive

I have just purchased my first flow hive and am ready to paint the brood box first so I’m read to start installing either a swarm from my Top bar hive (should it happen x fingers).Or a bought nuc. Now, my question is,. Do I paint the inside of the hive or just the outside only. I am using Cabots Decking stain. If I don’t use this for the inside, what do I paint the inside with? Or can I leave the inside raw timber? Thanks in advance. Kathlynne. :pray:

I know I’m not answering your specific question, however I’d be inclined to take a split from the TBH in preference to waiting or hoping for it to swarm.

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Leave it raw. The bees will wax it very quickly. :blush:

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Thank you Jeff. I will have to learn how. :wink: Appreciate your suggestion.

Will do @Dawn_SD. Thanks. :+1:

You are welcome Free, once you know what technique you are going to use for the split, I was thinking that you could cut the brood off the top bars & then attach them to the brood frames with elastic bands like folks do with cut outs. Let me know if you need to know more. cheers

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Thankyou @JeffH I would love to try this before buying a nuc. If you’re happy to help me via taking pics and advice as to the method I would really like to try this. I don’t like upsetting the hive too much but will try and keep disturbance to the bare minimum but it sound rather brutal. I will cut the brood off as you say and put this onto the flow hive frame and then what? Do the bees just split naturally making the queen hatch in the new flow hive? I have never seen the queen before and am very ignorant at this point recognising her. I don’t have a queen excluder in the top bar, just brood in one section towards the end. It might be awkward but I am willing to try. If after this you believe me to be too green and newby, I will take your advice and buy the nuc. , as I respect your knowledge and opinion. Cheers

Thank you Free. It depends on how strong the colony in the TBH is. You could take 3 or 4 brood combs out of the TBH & attach them to the empty frames as suggested. You’ll need to pick the frames that wont break away while shaking, the older ones I’m guessing.

Place those in the center of the brood box,being careful that the combs aren’t touching each other. What I would do then is shake some of the bees from the TBH into the nuc box from other frames that wont fall apart during shaking. Be careful not to transfer the queen.

I like frames with wax foundation, I would fill the nuc box with the rest of the frames with wax foundation. Make sure that there is some honey as well as brood in the nuc box. Also make sure that all of the brood is worker brood that contains some eggs or very young larvae. Close the nuc box up with a vented entrance as well as duct tape some fly wire to the hole in the inner cover. Place it where you want it to stand. Put the roof on as long as it’s vented, then leave it for 3 days (shaded) before opening it after placing a branch in front of the entrance. That will make sure that the bees remain with the nuc box.

Do you have a mentor or someone else with more experience with handling TBH’s that can help you? I’m aware that people with TBH’s don’t like smokers. A smoker would be essential for taking on a task such as this.

Good luck with that, bye for now.

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I have a smoker but rarely use it. This will be the exception. The hive is very strong. My nephew who gave me the hive teaches Natural beekeeping and would not approve of exploiting the bees like this. Still, Im going to give it my best shot in the gentlest way possible. Will post pics of the brood for you for your interest and sound opinion. There may be some Cross combing in the brood but I will show you. Will go to the hive now. Thanks @JeffH for advising me in this matter. Sounds simple enough!

JeffH https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/jeffh
October 11

Thank you Free. It depends on how strong the colony in the TBH is. You
could take 3 or 4 brood combs out of the TBH & attach them to the empty
frames as suggested. You’ll need to pick the frames that wont break away
while shaking, the older ones I’m guessing.

Place those in the center of the brood box,being careful that the combs
aren’t touching each other. What I would do then is shake some of the bees
from the TBH into the nuc box from other frames that wont fall apart during
shaking. Be careful not to transfer the queen.

I like frames with wax foundation, I would fill the nuc box with the rest
of the frames with wax foundation. Make sure that there is some honey as
well as brood in the nuc box. Also make sure that all of the brood is
worker brood that contains some eggs or very young larvae. Close the nuc
box up with a vented entrance as well as duct tape some fly wire to the
hole in the inner cover. Place it where you want it to stand. Put the roof
on as long as it’s vented, then leave it for 3 days (shaded) before opening
it after placing a branch in front of the entrance. That will make sure
that the bees remain with the nuc box.

Do you have a mentor or someone else with more experience with handling
TBH’s that can help you? I’m aware that people with TBH’s don’t like
smokers. A smoker would be essential for taking on a task such as this.

Good luck with that, bye for now.

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In Reply To
Free https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/free
October 11
Thankyou @JeffH https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/jeffh I would love to try
this before buying a nuc. If you’re happy to help me via taking pics and
advice as to the method I would really like to try this. I don’t like
upsetting the hive too much but will try and keep disturbance to the bare
minimum but it sound rather brutal. I will…

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You are welcome Free, I’m glad you are able to understand what I said. We might have to keep it a secret from your nephew :wink:

Pick a time with good weather. It sounds like you have the confidence to carry out the task. I guess if you don’t see the queen & she finishes up in the nuc, it wont matter all that much. The TBH can make a new queen.

Like you say, you’ll do it in the gentlest way possible, that will be good. Remember not to work in front of the entrance, you’ll be right.

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@JeffH. It was an effort tying that brood on!!! I hope it’s ok. It was very brutal. How many bees do I need in the hive and do I lock them in for three days somehow till they know where they live? How do I get Xtra bees in the hive if there are only a few bees in there with the tied on brood? The comb was not flush with the top.bar in places but hanging loose.

Wow, you don’t muck around :slight_smile: What I was originally thinking was to lock the entrance to the TBH to allow the returning bees to enter the nuc box. However you wont get all that many. Unless they had another exit somewhere. That way they would leave that exit & return to the normal exit, in that case they will go into the nuc because the normal entrance is blocked. Put the nuc entrance as close as possible to the blocked TB entrance. When you have sufficient bees covering the brood, then lock them in for 3 days & open the TB entrance. Place the nuc where you want it to stay & shade it.

We paint all the removeable flow hive inspection panels and key access on both sides. If you don’t the timber swells with the weather and it is very hard to remove them at different times of the year. A very light or white colour is much cooler long term and less maintenance. We have painted other boxes and some old nucs inside and out with a standard exterior house paint without problems.

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@Gaz So you recommend White house paint over the proposed decking oil / outdoor stain ?(see photo) Thanks for your opinion on this. I still haven’t started painting it yet. please let me know what you think of the decking stain as opposed to house paint? Thanks.

Is your hive a cedar one or a pine one? Apologies if you have already advised.

Aye. If you are ever looking at organic certification, it needs to be water based paint.

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I think I’d better paint my hive with water based house paint then. Not as toxic for the bees. I agree.

I have a pine hive @Dan2

A commercial keeper was surprised that I didn’t paint the inside of my boxes; surprised it seemed that I was not experiencing rotting from the inside out. Ex commercial hive boxes I own have been painted inside as well as outside.
Off my memory, wood tends to rot with a moisture content of more than 22 per cent. Humidity of 90 per cent or over will mean that the wood can reach that moisture percentage. As cedar has chemicals in it that resist decay, one could probably get away with not painting it inside or out, but I guess it might depend on your climate. Pine, (say for example Monterey pine) is usually a different matter.

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