BBKA Forum

Greetings,

I am new Beekeeper and I reside in Athens, Greece. I attend courses in beekeeping here in Athens, which collaborates with universities professors, professionals, etc. One professional beekeeper told us a strange technique.
He told us, instead of painting the beehive we could "throw" it in a cauldron of melted wax and when bubbles arise in the surface of the liquid the procedure is finished. Moreover, he told us this technique is better than painting our beehives, because the wax is more natural to the bees. Thus, the bees could keep it clean more easily, etc.
I want to ask if anyone here has heard this procedure to “paint” the beehive.

Thank you in advance

I have painted beehives with beeswax dissolved in hot linseed oil and it protects the wood well.

Having enough wax and a cauldron large enough to melt it in sounds a great idea but is beyond the resources of he average UK beekeeper. Interesting to know how long it took to melt all the wax needed and how it was heated. Maybe with a small cauldron it would be possible to dip one side at a time.

Interesting, I googled dipping beehives in wax, there is quite a lot of information.

I have also tried the linsceed and beeswax painting idea some time back and agree with Jim, it’s probably a matter of scale. The dipping in a tank of wax technique is probably worthwhile if you are operating at the commercial level, at a typical UK hobby level (sub 15 hives) I would think off the shelf wood treatments are probably more practical as you would need something like 25kg of wax to fill a brood size tank.

I think it is only really necessary to treat non cedar hives, in Greece do you use cedar or pine hives generally?

I have some old untreated Taylor’s and Showerings cedar hives still in use that must be decades old and still in good condition.

I believe that it is hot paraffin wax that is often used for dipping, rather than beeswax. It is not something I would want to do.

Welcome to the forum!

dear Patrick, here in Greece most of us, we have pine hives.

Hi George, thanks for reply. I think most countries use pine rather than cedar, we seem a bit stuck on it in the UK and it certainly is not the cheap option if you buy first quality.

I am a bit of a seconds and second hand tight wad personally!

Seconds and sales here!

I have one 'deal' hive. It had to be painted. One of the polyhives I bought also needed painting.

I hate painting so much I'd never buy another of either.

The good news Diane is the Abelo Poly Hives come ready painted.
Limited choice of colours, Green, Yellow, or Blue.
I think they look great, particularly the yellow and blue ones. Not to everyone's taste though. But they make a nice splash of colour in my back garden at this bleak damp time of year.

I am so glad you couldnt fine a larger image to paste in there Nigel. Other wise I would have to stand back from the monitor to see it all. I peronsally am quite partial to the "Poaceae green" shade that Abelo sell.