Sooooo what’s with the new red cedar Flow boxes that were introduced in a video today?
Are people that are currently having an order in able to get them?
There has been lots of conversation surrounding what, exactly, will be the form of the hives we will get.
I can tell it is all close to getting dialed in, but I’ll be glad to know if we are getting the cedar ; -)
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Where was that posted? I had a look but couldn’t find it.
I contacted the guys about the wood they were planning to use for their Australian order because I’ve got a mill and we regularly do Californian Redwood. I think it would be a much better choice than radiata pine because of Redwoods light weight (~10-15% less than radiata), durability (no need to paint, oil or anything, classed as AG1 for durability) and strength (stronger grades structurally to F11 versus F8 for radiata).
Red cedar would also be a good choice for similar reasons although possibly not as sustainable depending on what species they mean by red cedar.
Hi Weaver check out the flowhive Facebook page the comments have a bit of info about the western red cedar they are using. Looks as though they have sourced enough cedar to fulfill orders to those that are shipping out to sept. Great looking box!
I’m really looking forward to getting mine.
Western Red Ceder very different from Red Ceder but a good choice certainly better than pine in terms of durability.
I’ll have a look on the FB page and see if I can find it.
Any idea where the trees were sourced from.
Those boxes are beautiful. Does anyone know if they are BeeThinking boxes? I for one, would consider paying extra to upgrade my boxes if this becomes available as an option. Good work, “Red Cedar”. 
Hello Flow Team,
Please advise of cost to purchase Red Cedar flow super box separately as I would like to add this to my existing order. Also does it come with roof / lid ?
If not does a standard Langstrough lid fit ?
I assume cost will be in U.S. Dollars
They are shipping from Bee Thinking’s address.
The other option for those that want to look at alternatives to the pine boxes are cypress pine which also has natural oils that repel termites ect… I looked into a guy who sells them in board form for making bee hives in Melbourne but he only sells them in several hundred metre lengths. I only wanted several metres! Goldencypress.com.au for those interested in making several hundred boxes.
I’m not sure how the bees would go with the highly resinous nature of cypress pine either black (Callitris endlicheria) or white (Callitris glauca), possibly the same issue with Golden or Monterrey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa).
Could someone who knows more about bees make a comment?
I’ve got Californian redwood and I can get golden cypress but like I said I’m not sure its suitable for bees. It would be suitable for a frame to sit a box on to keep it a hive off the ground.
All the woods have the same above ground durabilty class (AG1) while only White Cypress pine is below ground one (BG1) the other beings not so good at BG2.
I cant go on experience as I am just setting up my first hive. I can only go by what is advertised on the site. Here is the link. http://goldencypress.com.au/bee-boxes/
Would also like to hear others experience with cypress if it a viable option. I do like the look of natural wood and not having to paint the boxes.
I am looking at building my hive stand from cypress posts! Good idea weaver!
Yes they are built by BeeThinking
That is delightful news. I can’t think of a better group to go with. If I were selling hives, theirs would be the ones I would carry.
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The guys at Golden Cypress know their timber in terms of its structural and durability properties. I’ve bought timber off them for a number of landscape and construction jobs when I couldn’t get the logs to mill my own supplies. Always good service and good timber.
I don’t know if they know anything about bees though. Some woods are very good at deterring insects from eating them because they don’t like eating them but others because of the volatile oils and resins they release over time. The former types would be good for bee boxes because bees don’t eat wood. Although having said that there are a couple of woods that are actually pretty poisonous but they are seriously rare and quite valuable (yew for example). The later might be a problem. For example Himalayan and Lebanese Cedar are both excellent rot resistant and insect resistant timbers. So good in fact that small pieces of them can be used to deter silver fish and wool moths from eating your clothes. I’d be worried about using them for bee boxes for that reason. Same with cypress pine and monterrey cypress but to a lesser degree.
You seem to know your wood Weaver and fair enough. I am only going down the pathway of hive stands with the cypress pine. I am also looking at Paulownia as a potential for hive boxes. Very lightweight and resembles western red cedar in stength and weight. Dont know about the volatile resins or oils though but is claimed to be termite resistant. I have used it in making a strip built kayak and seems to be similar feel to balsa wood but stronger.
Cool. I’ve known of Paulownia for years but never got hold of any. There are a bunch of plantations starting to produce so the amount of this wood available is going to increase over the next while.
I didn’t know it was also rot resistant. That is now another species to put on my list for honey production.
http://forum.honeyflow.com/t/stationary-or-semi-stationary-commercial-bee-keeping/2485/18
And great that it is sustainable and grown in Australia.
I called a couple of suppliers to try and find out if Paulownia had an official durability classification.
These guys said they would get back to me but were chasing it up already
http://www.paulowniatimber.com.au/timber.php
While this guy hung up on me.
http://www.paulowniatrees.com.au
Was not impressed. His website advertises a number of services many of which I would need if this was a direction I was going to take. The first mob were much more helpful.
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