Tung oil ok on araucaria

It isn’t airtight if you don’t let the honey form an airlock in the Flow tube. If you leave a pathway of air open, the air displaced from the container can exit through the Flow frame in the hive. :wink: :blush:

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The container only becomes air tight when the drain tube becomes full of honey, normally the air build up goes up the tube and released into the hive. If the drain hose is full of honey then there is a very big risk of the honey unable to all drain fast enough and a hive flooding situation can happen.
Cheers

That’s what I said, didn’t I? Or being English, am I not writing English properly? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :nerd_face:

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I was agreeing with you dawn, I just explained it a little differently hoping Gill understood better with both answers.
There was something on the forum a couple of nights back about an alternative to a smoker but the crowd funding didn’t get a lot of support. Is there something along those lines in the US. Here we have Summer total fire bans and that goes for smokers too. Local bee equipment suppliers here have no worthwhile advise about anything.
Cheers

I have read some things about it in the US. People who tried early models said that it didn’t work at all. The bees were not pacified by it. I think word got around, and that is why it didn’t get funded. :man_shrugging:

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Hi @Faroe! Just assembling my Flow Hive 2 today. Reading back some forums re: painting & sealing and yours is the only comment I could find here regarding keeping a natural finish on an Araucaria hive. Could you share more info about the waterproof tinted sealer? What kind did you use? How many coats did you apply? How successful was this at waterproofing (I realize your comment is from back in 2018, of course!) Any info is appreciated, thanks for your great guidance on these forums.

Faroe hasn’t posted to the forum in almost a year (she no longer works with Flow; she got involved with a composting venture from memory). You might want to identify someone else to try and obtain a response or perhaps check through various threads and see what people say.

I can’t recall discussion of a tinted sealer but for those that have wanted to keep the natural pine look I think they’vev typically used a marine grade sealer.

Thanks for your reply Alan! I’ve read a bit about the Marine grade sealer on these forums as well and will consider that for my pine hive/do a bit more research before pulling the trigger on it. Heading to the hardware store today after work and will see what the folks there have to say. Many thanks!

I have successfully hot wax dipped all parts of an Araucaria FH2 - not sure how many years it will last but it looks good so far after 1 season.

Something to consider if that sort of thing is available in your area.