Painting Poly Hives

[Into the lions den]

Just re-reading this.

What gloss paint do you recommend?

Any exterior gloss. Bees are not fussy and it gives a coat that lasts the lifetime of the box. We use an airless sprayer which does them at a prodigious rate (700+ lang deeps and 100+ paynes nucs in under three hours with two guys.

Single coat. Probably need two if you are using a brush as it can be very blotchy looking that way due to the intense white surface (expect where coloured beads are used).

Having real trouble attaching pics.......

 

[fatshark]

Try photographing less than 700?



At that rate I could repaint all my current hives (and spares) in about 4 minutes.

 

[pargyle]

Try photographing less than 700?



At that rate I could repaint all my current hives (and spares) in about 4 minutes.

And with an airless spray pump probably the rest of the apiary and the adjacent field as well !!

 

[BMH]

going to give that a go.

would love an airless sprayer but can't justify the cost.

my £39 Aldi one will have to do.

I'll see if I can find some exterior gloss in the sales

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

 

[maddydog]

I got one of these: 24 Litre Air Compressor & Tool Kit - 9.6 CFM, 2.5 HP SC24H-K1 plus Combination 2 in 1 Air Nail & Staple Gun
SAT403 from SGS Engineering last year. Best beekeeping £126 I've ever spent.
Nail gun has helped make up 100's of frames and I've sprayed 20 Maisie 14x12 nucs and 20 mini mating nucs in far less time than it took to hand paint 5 nucs last summer.

 

[bontbee]

I used a mini roller to paint my poly nucs. Much quicker than a brush and gave an even finish. (I did need a small brush to get around some of the mouldings). The paint is as good as new, apart from where I dig the boxes with my hive tool as I'm so clumsy and awkward.

 

[BMH]

Well i painted 42 nuc brood boxes in less than 30 minutes with my cheapo sprayer using less than a litre of paint (leftover sandtex masonry)

Will give them a second coat tomorrow but they look great as they are.

Can believe i faffed around with brushes for so long.

Was actually half fun.

 

[oGri]

How do you guys find the edges stand up to hive tool "abuse" separating boxes?

do you paint top & bottom?for extra strength?

oG

 

[Finman]

How do you guys find the edges stand up to hive tool "abuse" separating boxes?

do you paint top & bottom?for extra strength?

oG

If it is difficult to separate boxes, the reason is that frames are glued with burr in lower and upper super. It is not boxes, which are tightly together.
I think that painting does not help. As well as to put vaselin into joint.

In bad cases you must loosen super frame by frame.

If the box is violated, it is easy to repair with PU glue.

 

[Poly Hive]

If you buy decent poly they will see you out.

Do not paint load bearing surfaces as they will then stick badly together.

PH

 

[madasafish]

How do you guys find the edges stand up to hive tool "abuse" separating boxes?

do you paint top & bottom?for extra strength?

oG

I am as careful as I am with wooden hives..

Nope..

 

[bontbee]

Just to clarify...I don't paint the mating surfaces, either, because paint seems to like to stick to itself, (just as well, I s'pose, otherwise it would be pointless painting more than one coat on anything!), so I don't find any problems with separating the boxes.

I am just sooo clumsy; I tend to dig the hive tool in when removing the roof(!), taking boxes off(!!) putting boxes on (!!!) - anything at all, really, cos I rarely put my hive tool down while I'm dealing with the "hardware", and can't seem to coordinate myself properly....

 

[user 6228]

Something missed out on this thread.
Its important to paint a poly hive to make it OPAQUE to stop light entering the nest & not just stop UV killing the poly.
So make sure you coat the handle areas properly as these can let in light on some models.

Honey bee behaviour is affected by light and natural nests are usually very dark often the walls are black with propolis.