Hi everyone.
After a lot of blood, sweat and tears (mostly my tears), my husband has built me a topbar hive with a perspex viewing side panel. It's made of wood plyboard scrap and pine and I'm painting the outside to protect it from the elements with fence paint. I intend to move the entire hive from the ricketty hive we built 2 years ago to this new hive. The bees have only been in the old hive for just over 2 months, so there isn't a lot of comb. I think they lost their queen or swarmed, as there is only 5 bars with comb on it.
:scratch:My question is - should I paint the inside of the hive too? Will this affect the bees? I obviously don't want to cause them to nick off. I've spent too much time on them. Once they are in this hive, I won't touch them again for many months, because I also have the bottom removable for inspections.
Any thoughts are welcome.
Mandy
:s
After a lot of blood, sweat and tears (mostly my tears), my husband has built me a topbar hive with a perspex viewing side panel. It's made of wood plyboard scrap and pine and I'm painting the outside to protect it from the elements with fence paint. I intend to move the entire hive from the ricketty hive we built 2 years ago to this new hive. The bees have only been in the old hive for just over 2 months, so there isn't a lot of comb. I think they lost their queen or swarmed, as there is only 5 bars with comb on it.
:scratch:My question is - should I paint the inside of the hive too? Will this affect the bees? I obviously don't want to cause them to nick off. I've spent too much time on them. Once they are in this hive, I won't touch them again for many months, because I also have the bottom removable for inspections.
Any thoughts are welcome.
Mandy
:s