Anybody with a western cedar Flow Hive in Townsville, Queensland, who would like some Tung Oil to treat their hive, please let me know.
I bought a litre of pure Tung oil from thewoodworks and mixed it with a litre of d-limolene (citric turpene) and after putting three coats on my hive I still have over a litre of the mixture left so I’m sure it would come in handy for anyone else wanting to treat their hive as well.
I know there’s a few around town because when I picked my hive up from the delivery agent, they said they’d had a few come through.
Sorry thewoodworks not trying to do you out of business, I bought it from you anyway and very happy with it, but I wont use the remainder and don’t want to throw it out.
Will it keep?
One hive is never enough
You need another, at least, to help the first if you get into trouble.
When the time comes for swarming you’ll have more bees and will need that extra box
Dee I’ve got another Flow hive coming in March but its a pine Aussie made unit which will require painting rather than oiling. I’m not sure if Tung Oil has a life to it, but I can’t see myself buying another WRC unit, so I’m happy to give the remaining oil to someone who can use it. If I keep expanding, I’ll buy the cheaper Aussie units or just the flow frames and adapt conventional boxes to them.
@Farsideb to be honest I never gave it a thought, I’m not a wood worker and my only experiences with pine are that if its out in the weather it has to be painted, so that’s my plan. I like the idea of murals and maybe letting grand daughter paint some bees on it etc. I’ll have to find out what the other pine Flow hive owners are doing.
Tung has excellent shelf life and you will want to reapply it every few years to renew the finish.
The chatter from furniture finishers about how tung oil isn’t suitable for outdoor application has cracked me up. Down at the marina that view is pretty firmly rebutted!
But it does need occasional reapplication. Often just one coat.
