Does any one routinely paint their cedar hives and if so, what do you use?
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I would suspect that makes for a nice looking hive. I have never been to keen on the natural fade look of cedar.WalnutTreeBees wrote: ↑20 Oct 2018, 19:19I've started scorching mine to a mid brown colour.
It's traditional in Japan to char cedar and then oil it, the process is called shou sugi ban (I think!)
I pin sheets of correx to the sides which keeps the rain off and adds some small amount of insulation.Chrisbarlow wrote: ↑20 Oct 2018, 19:39I would suspect that makes for a nice looking hive. I have never been to keen on the natural fade look of cedar.WalnutTreeBees wrote: ↑20 Oct 2018, 19:19I've started scorching mine to a mid brown colour.
It's traditional in Japan to char cedar and then oil it, the process is called shou sugi ban (I think!)
The reason I asked was that I know that the thermal properties of cedar wood are quite low and when it gets wet as in winter it goes even lower, I wondered about painting the boxes with some thing that still meant the wood was breathable but stopped it from getting drenched through and lowering the R value of the wood. It was just a thought.