Commercial Beekeeping

[Ian]

I have been switching out some of my older boxes with new boxes. Quite a treat. Our farm has made a deal with some local Amish box makers to barter boxes and wooden frames for breeding bulls. Fantastic deal! I also built a bunch of migratory tops and bottom board pallets that I built myself.
I couldnt bare the thought of painting all this equipment so I decided to hit up another local box maker to dip everything through his paraffin dipping tanks.
I will never paint again, dipping is the way to go!

[Ian]

The year before I dipped my bottom board pallets in copper naphthenate but only up to the bottom board. They walk on bare wood. That seems to be working well. I didnt fully dip because of my concern of the bees walking on that stuff

[beemandan]

you would think it cant be good for the bees to be walking on that stuff.

Delaplane, K. S.h & J. A. Berryh - A TEST FOR SUB-LETHAL EFFECTS OF SOME COMMONLY USED HIVE CHEMICALS


‘Compared to non-treated controls, significantly negative effects on brood area were found for Maverik (fluvalinate) and CheckMite (coumaphos), on bee learning for copper naphthenate wood preservative and Maverik, and bee memory for copper naphthenate and Taktic (amitraz).’

[Ian]

I was dreading the sight of my paint brush looking at the stack of equipment that had to be painted. Sending it off to be paraffin dipped was so nice and they came back looking very sharp.

[G B]

Hello Ian, I to have been dipping my boxes. But here in Arizona I go ahead and paint them white while they are still hot. The paint gets sucked right down into the wood with the parafin and helps to keep the boxes cooler.

[Ian]

cool deal George! How long before re painting your boxes?

[jim lyon]

The year before I dipped my bottom board pallets in copper naphthenate but only up to the bottom board. They walk on bare wood. That seems to be working well. I didnt fully dip because of my concern of the bees walking on that stuff

Lately we have been soaking just the bottom of the sides on our hive bodies (pre assembly) in Copper Nap. That is the area where rot usually first show up. An hour in the tank usually wicks up about an inch depending on how much liquid is in the tank. Seemed like a good compromise as I was concerned about what effect it might have on the bees if the entire box was treated. I think George has the best program though.

[Keith Jarrett]

I think George has the best program though.

Gotta watch out for ole George. lol

[jim lyon]

He copied you didn't he?

[Keith Jarrett]

Right down to the very last dime. GB, good guy.

[Grant]

The year before I dipped my bottom board pallets in copper naphthenate but only up to the bottom board. They walk on bare wood. That seems to be working well. I didnt fully dip because of my concern of the bees walking on that stuff

I presume you used the green stuff like Perme-8 (You can get water-based Cop Nap from Lowes which doesn't seem to last very long).

What did you use to dilute the cop nap? Some use mineral spirits, some use diesel.

Grant
Jackson, MO

[Ian]

I presume you used the green stuff like Perme-8 (You can get water-based Cop Nap from Lowes which doesn't seem to last very long).

What did you use to dilute the cop nap? Some use mineral spirits, some use diesel.

Grant
Jackson, MO

Grant, I was using the green stuff, stinks, and mixed it three or four times with mineral spirits. I did not see the water based Cop Nap but I did buy some of the Zinc Naphthenate which did not have any smell to it at all. The one thing about the Cop Naphthenate was after the pallets were done, I could tell they were treated. With the Zinc, there was no smell or change in colour, so I mixed in some Cop Nap just so it seemed like I was doing something lol