I leave cedar alone and I am sure that it will last longer than me. Other stuff has a permeable sadolin on it of various colours dependant on if I find them on the 'whoops' shelf. I have some plywood boxes which I try to keep indoors in the winter as it doesn't appear to last too well.
I think Peter Edwards used paraffin wax rather than beeswax for frying his hives and swears by it. My hives are almost all cedar and I leave them untreated for a few seasons and then use shed and fence treatment. I usually retreat every 3 years (a third each year) but I missed it last winter so now I'm on a 4 year cycle. If you treat new cedar it does not absorb the solution very well. If you don't treat old cedar, although it does not rot, it seems to get porous and heavy in wet weather.
Beginners often like to treat wood when it's new to keep it looking good and to prevent it from turning grey so quickly. I usually suggest raw linseed oil for that as it protects the wood without sealing it. I would expect it to be quite harmless for the bees too.
Rosie
Originally Posted by gavin
Here is a link to Michael Bush's wax-dipping method (Bushfarms). It sounds like Peter Edwards' method, but he includes 'gum rosin'. I suppose that is gum resin - but I have no idea where to find it (apart from small quantities at printing suppliers), or whether it is an important ingredient.
Kitta
I use the emulsion, too. Try to avoid chemical solutions and always opt for natural and organic decisions, and your bees would appreciate that!
Herman: Like Frank the other day, I've removed the inappropriate link in your post to some picture editor site. Could you post without it please? Thanks ....
Last edited by gavin; 26-03-2012 at 12:16 PM. Reason: Removing commercial link in signature
I use a wax based fence coating (no preservatives), add rape seed oil (sold as Vegetable oil at £1.50 per litre local Tesco) and paint on.Lasted 3 years so far on pallet wood...
Piggy-backing on the 'hive falling to pieces" bit of the starting post, we need to repair one side of one of our hives. A neighbour demolished a collapsing shed and gave us some of the timber for our woodburner. It's teak. Some is good enough to re-use. There might be enough for repairs and a super or two.
Do bees and teak mix?
Bees and teak mix alright but you ain't 'arf going to make your hive HEAVY.I once made some hives from some nice Larch boards - very durable but so heavy I could hardly lift them.I.m surprised if your neibours shed collapsed if it is made of teak,could it have been made of afromosia -a teak look alike but not very durable as it doesn't contain the natural oils like teak.
I didn't know that, thanks.
The shed collapsed because the floor rotted and a lot of the vertical supports gave way, they decided that repairing it wasn't an option. Many of the boards are in good enough condition to re-use, but maybe we should think of another project.
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