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Not my call, as I am not a moderator. 
Takes one to know one, and all of the good people on this forum are wonderful. 
The vast majority are so kind and generous, it makes a great community.
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Thank you so much!
Lora Hoff
For anyone else reading this thread who might decide to seal during assembly (and who, like me, aren’t very handy/knowledgeable about these things), be aware that the sealant will likely squeeze out of the joints as you screw them together, and not all silicone sealants can be painted on. I learned the hard way, after taking @busso’s consideration to seal during assembly and @adagna’s suggestion to use a 100% silicone sealant (‘roof and gutter’ as suggested by HoneyFlow), I had “fun” having to sand back the sealant while in the process of painting. (Of course after assembly I saw the caveat in small writing on the back of the tube…) 
I wouldn’t recommend this approach. I don’t know if it is possible to get 100% silicone sealant that you can paint over, as they probably add an agent to allow the paint to bind (that’s just my surmising). Either way, something to be aware of in your choice of sealant and approach. End result has worked a treat though so I’m glad I did make the decision to seal during assembly - it’s a simple solution, there’s no water ingress as far as I can tell and we’ve had some pretty heavy storms. 
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The copper top idea intrigues me, copper being choice roofing material for a reason. Expense being the only real barrier - has anyone thought to try copper tape? You can order it for conductive film and gardeners use it as a snail barrier. It’s water proof, just unsure about durability.
I have covered a few hives with very thin copper sheets (can’t recall exact thickness but easily cut with scissors. It’s standing up very well and looks great.
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I’d love to see photos of that, if you have any.
BTW- I think The Urban Beehive in sydney may be making some copper roofing to fit on flowhives. They are in matraville- give them a call.
Mine are not flow hives- I’ll see if I can get you a pic.
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Dude, that’s exactly what I’ve been trying for!
I’ve emailed to see if they sell the cover as a stand-alone.
Thanks for your help!
Ah, I see that the cover option adds $125 to the roof, so maybe a little out of my range.
Still, very interesting to see it’s being done.
I waterproofed my flow roof with 3 thick coats of paint, coupled with a thick bead of silicone under the overhang.
I put many coats on my roof, but I don’t think the paint I used was outdoor grade. There’s mould patches growing both inside the roof and under the eaves on the paint itself. I’m going to strip it back, loosen the boards, possibly treat with oil or something, cover them with copper tape, screw in tight and paint all the gaps on the underside with melted wax. I wonder if lightly scorching the wood underneath might help…
Lightly scorching underneath might help to kill the mold & help dry it out, however it wont help when more water gets in. I wouldn’t paint all the undersides with melted wax.
I would lightly sand it all back before giving it a couple of thick coasts of British Paints prep 4 in 1 (or something similar), making sure you fill all the joins with paint, continuing under the eves. You could even give it a third coat, concentrating on the joins. Then after that, give it a thick coat of semi gloss weather shield water based paint. After it’s all dry, put a decent bead of silicone under the over hang & eves. That will stop water from entering the inside from the outside. However that wont stop condensation buildup from inside the hive itself.
Yeah, I’ve read people recommending drilling holes in the roof or putting in a woodchip quilt to deal with that, but first things first.
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the inside of a flow roof can become very damp and moldy here in adelaide in winter. For that reason I have drilled ventilation holes (1 inch) with mesh covers in all my roofs. that resolved the issue. I have also been using quilt boxes this last winter and they seemed to work very well.
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I think I’ll drill some smaller holes at the apex of the roof under the eaves and cover them with mesh to stop pests. Just enough to let the moisture evaporate.