Doing up an old hive

[match]

I've been offered an old hive by a ex-beekeeper who gave up many years ago after developing an allergic reaction to beestings. He gave away most of his hives at that time, but kept one for sentimental reasons. Having talked to him about the plight of the bees, he's offered it to me to try to help the bees.

He doesn't remember much about it all now, but has sent me a picture of the hive - at a first guess I'd say its a commercial hive, but its difficult to say. I'm using nationals, but I can always find someone to swap kit with.

As you can see the hive is covered in a lot of algae in places, though the guy says the wood is in good condition. Assuming I let the wood dry out, and want to re-treat it, whats the best way to go about getting the algae off?

 

[sherwood]

need the dimensions to confirm the size 18 1/8 national 18 5/16 commercial.
power wash the algae off or if to destructive a scrubbing brush with some mild bleach and some elbow grease dont worry to much about the outside

 

[jezd]

yep, elbow grease I think should so it

 

[Tom Bick]

Yes elbow grease is the order of the day Oxalic Acid is a chemical used in the past to clean timber but if it was down to me good old sandpaper.

 

[BKF Admin]

If you have not already realised the marks you can see on the box's are from lockslides,looking closer they may even be still attached.

 

[MuswellMetro]

if it is made of pine, it will in need a coat external only of clear cuprinol after cleaning off the alge

if it is Cedar, then no need to treat externally unless you want to stop the alge

The inside needs to be torched with a blow torch, to kill any spors, any frames need to be cleaned of all wax and srubbed/boiled in Soda

size,/what hive, well it could be on older style national, commercial or Smith, you appear to have two brood boxes, and three honey supers, solid floor and roof, you might need a open mesh floor, though you some still like the solid floor even with varroa mite

really you need both the intnernal and external dimensions or the size of a frame ( or photo of both for us to see)

 

[mbc]

Clean the insides as per MM blow torch advice, get some bee inside and move the hives to heather and the algae will come off nicely on your suit