Panting poly hives

  • Thread starter Curly green fingers
  • Start date
Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
C

Curly green fingers

Guest
I'm sure there's loads on here about panting polys, but What's good to use i want them to be colourful, and even more weather proof.
Cheers mark.
 
I like camouflage.

As PH has pointed out, unless they are in your garden, you want them as inconspicuous as possible.

I used spray paint for cars on my last batch and it seems to be holding up but it's only been on a few weeks.

ITLD uses any oil based exterior gloss as it bonds to the poly.

Always do a test before coating everything though as some can melt the poly quite bad
cca512c1a8c1caa0882b1d24dcc84b73.jpg


Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
 
Camo
4b03e18628fbf495e9e69b6ab139699c.jpg
83ae9e70d0d93521112b54220c33a8f4.jpg
f80805d46f18d63e10037fa5cbd19512.jpg


Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
 
Most of mine are on a private estate and they have their own security. NOTHING happens on the estate without them knowing about it.
 
I use Cuprinol shades, works well. Bought some recently £8 for 5 litres from the original pound shop ‘Trago Mills’ in their winter sale.
S
 
You don't want colourful. They walk Mark.
PH

Must be very unfit, if they're panting after just a walk... I know it's a bad joke, but I couldn't resist - it happens to the best of us mate :)
 
I use Cuprinol shades, works well. Bought some recently £8 for 5 litres from the original pound shop ‘Trago Mills’ in their winter sale.
S

I have some over 10 years old with Cuprinol garden shades, all still ok actually not bad stuff.....crap for wood though;(
 
I have some over 10 years old with Cuprinol garden shades, all still ok actually not bad stuff.....crap for wood though;(

I have used it on a few very old hives in an attempt to rejuvenate them, found it okay but takes a few coats.
S
 
Thanks again for the replys, when the season starts
I will be transferring almost all hives into polys that I've bought in the sale's .
My nucs are on an estate which is going to be my nucery and hopefully Queen rearing apairy , my production colony's are going to my friends farm and some staying at home , so I've different scenarios to think about . I've masonry paint already left over from painting the house I'll be able to use this for the hives at home .
I'll be going shopping for some cuprinol tomorrow but maybe keep the colour not so colourful but get my lad to do a bit of art work around the entrances.
Cheers
Mark.
 
Some people have used Hammerite garage door paint with success as it seems to melt a thin layer and creates a durable finish.

I used Dulux Weathershield masonry paint, similar to the sandtex.
 
Any paint will do, you're only protecting the poly from UV damage. All my poly nucs are painted in varying shades of emulsion.
 
Any paint will do, you're only protecting the poly from UV damage. All my poly nucs are painted in varying shades of emulsion.

Yes ... I've used a few different paints .. Cuprinol Shades works well but it takes three coats to cover properly and it's a bit pricey. I found interior emulsion started to crack and flake off on the sunny side of the hives... I had some Sandtex exterio masonry paint, left over from a job - that worked well and only two coats were needed to cover.

The best though was Aldi 'garden paint' ... I bought a few end of promotion tins for £1.50 a tin .. dark green and grey. Covered well and at that giveaway price as cheap as chips. Water based and in the summer touch dry in about 10 minutes.

I think the main thing is to get a coat of paint on the boxes to stop the UV degradation .. one coat would do it but it looks a bit patchy with most paints .. depends how much you value asethetics ...Mine are all plain colours with enough coats that the colour is solid - but I've seem some very interesting camouflaged boxes which I might try and replicate at some point.
 
Does anyone know how long it takes UV to degrade an unpainted poly hive? I've seen some quite old unpainted ones that looked fine. On the keep it simple....what could be simpler than not painting.....?
 
Does anyone know how long it takes UV to degrade an unpainted poly hive? I've seen some quite old unpainted ones that looked fine. On the keep it simple....what could be simpler than not painting.....?

I will put the lottery on if you get a sensible answer.;)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top