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  • Painting my Hive

  • Beginners forum, ask beekeeping related questions and get help from other experienced beekeepers. Please use the Search Feature please to avoid duplicated threads
Beginners forum, ask beekeeping related questions and get help from other experienced beekeepers. Please use the Search Feature please to avoid duplicated threads
 #9951  by Alfred
 05 Feb 2021, 13:44
Also to muddy the water- this is beekeeping after all-
if you're doing linseed make sure it's raw ,keep to external areas and watch the price
Best value is on Amazon for 5l tubs of Bartoline.
Also it's a commitment as you won't be able to paint over it in future,just top-up once a year if required.
It does blacken if left in dark damp unventilated places too
From bitter experience wash your work clothes separately afterwards
 #9952  by Patrick
 05 Feb 2021, 16:16
I agree the gable roofs look nice, but Adam has a good point I hadn’t really thought about. When doing inspections, you do need something to put the removed supers / brood chambers on.

I also use an upturned flat roof as a tray, to hold floors / queen excluders , crown boards when moving kit, as a receptacle for things like shaking bees into for stocking mini nucs etc.

I also have a brick sitting on top of each of my flat roofs at all times, partly to weigh it down, but mainly as my practical substitute for hive records, which I never honestly got on with. The orientation of the brick tells me the state of each hive and current operation being carried out for the next visit, so I can assess the apiary at a glance. It’s a pretty simple code but seems to work for me ok.

So all things I could use something else for, but it is handy to not have to remember yet another accessory or bit of kit and just concentrate on the job in hand. So see how you get on with the flat roof for a while maybe?
 #9953  by NigelP
 05 Feb 2021, 18:48
I'm intrigued. A code set in bricks......
 #9954  by Alfred
 05 Feb 2021, 19:37
Like a waggle dance- how appropriate!
Patrick have you got pampass grass or a windchimes in the garden?? ;)
There's obviously going to be brick orientation that means "stop taking the Mick of my ideas" :shock:
 #9955  by Patrick
 07 Feb 2021, 10:36
:D I never thought about that Alfred! My Aunty in Manchester used to have pampas grass in her front garden in the Seventies - you don’t think, surely ..?? 😂

My brick code is pretty basic. All my seasonal tasks are carried out on all hives at the same time in an apiary.

Brick on side, flat face to front = current task completed, all ok. Brick on side pointing to front = task incomplete, all ok.
Brick on flat pointing forward = task incomplete, another issue.
Brick on end = we have a problem, Houston!

Many things like vertical splits are already obvious due to the hive configuration, any necessary aide memoirs can be scrawled in shorthand in chalk on the box (such as tally marks for how much feed it has had so far), if -Q etc.

Queen rearing does have its own laptop spread sheet, otherwise I would forget dates.

It is not perfect, but paper hive records in the early days just never seemed to work for me. I never settled on where or how to keep them and often failed to fully update them. As the season progressed, I was never settled where they went with splits / unites / box numbers as I swapped equipment around. I soon found I was more interested in looking at what was in front of me now than what was happening last week. I often just needed the reminder when I arrived as to exactly which hive it was I had a still outstanding issue with last time, hence the at-a- glance brick system.

Interested to hear what others do? :)
 #9956  by NigelP
 07 Feb 2021, 12:20
I'm afraid bricks wouldn't work for me as I keep exotics and need to know exactly what each queen is in each hive, F0, F1, F2's or F3's and what is going on. Most of my work during the season is to try to dispose of F2's/F3's and replace with newly mated F1's from by breeder queens. It's the only way I can keep nice calm bees in m y area and usually have a couple of swarm free years from those hives
The fact that I still have too many feisty F2's and Ff3's is down to last years poor matings and too many late supersedures. It couldn't possibly be due to my cackhandedness ...LOL...
I use a metal clipboard with pencil attached by string. Usually have pro-notes as to what needs to be done to each hive in that apiary and then I can make notes accordingly i.e queen clipped/marked swarm control/frames of brood/queen cells/stores/pollen stores etc etc
All then transferred to master log book in folder when back home.
Bit of a faff, but with approx 20 hives I find it necessary in order to keep on top of things.
If my locals where delightful to work with I daresay a brick would suit me fine.
 #9957  by Patrick
 07 Feb 2021, 19:24
For keeping track of Queen lineages over years I can’t see how you could do without such records either Nigel.

My better queens to breed from each year are usually pretty self evident and as they are open mated with local drones, it will always be an inexact science. Luckily bees in my area are generally ok.

Oddly, it was as I got beyond a dozen or so colonies that record keeping individual colonies influenced my management less and less. I tended to do what needed to be done there and then rather than wait and see for next time. If I see queen cells with jelly in them for example, they just get split there and then, I don’t knock don and hope for the best next time. Been there, done that😁.

I totally get detailed record keeping and it is obviously the best practice. I just somehow drifted away from it many years ago. Maybe I will find a system that works for me at some point again. My mate keeps a detailed fishing diary. A proper fisherman 👍. I’m lucky to remember to take a net..
 #9958  by NigelP
 07 Feb 2021, 19:58
Yup, there are many times I simply wish I lived in a "local bees are okay" area.
 #10251  by Bobbysbees
 15 Mar 2021, 18:45
I dont paint my hives as I like the weathered look. I scorch them and then use my own mix of wax, and linseed oil melted down to a paste. You can apply it with a cloth or a brush and you a get an amazing finish. If you want to get inventive with it when you do the first wax rendering add a little food colouring to get your proffered colour.
100% natural and very cost effective.