Anybody have any advice on what to use, or not use, as a protectant/sealant on a new flow hive?
I’d like to keep the natural color (western red cedar).
Thompson’s water seal maybe?
Thanks
Hi John, welcome to the forum.
Here’s a link from the equipment category on the forum which has lots of ideas and recommendations.
Hope this helps.
Deck sealer worked for me. Only on the outside. You could also do nothing, it’s cedar. I did nothing to my other cedar hive and i like it more. All about personal preference. They say to paint the roof but i used sealer on it too, no issues yet. If it ever appears to be failing I’ll slap some exterior paint on it.
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It all comes down to how much work you want to do up front to how much maintenance over the journey. The best is to wax dip all the woodware and paint the roof with a good external paint. Will be good for 15+ years. The next is to paint all of it with a good exterior paint, of which deck paint can be consider part of, which should be good for 10+ years. The least IMHO, and seemingly surprisingly the most popular, is to use an oil (Tung, Lanoguard, etc). These often need to be reapplied at 3-6 month intervals.
Good luck with what ever you choose.
Adam
I used 50/50 Boiled Linseed Oil/Turps.
It gave an excellent finish to my Western Red Cedar. Will probably pop on an extra coat before winter. Outside only of course.
The “boiled linseed oil isn’t sticky either.
I got it from Bunnings.
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