Silicone sealant and bees

[user 6228]

Tried a search found nothing... Silicone sealant - neutral or acid cure, how do the bees react to it?

 

[hughjamton]

I've seen something on here about people using it without problems, can't remember which posts they were though. I think one was about an observation hive.
I would only use the aquarium silicone myself, if its safe for marine fish and corals it's certainly safe for bees, also it's not as "soft" when cured as some low modulus silicones.
Some silicone contains mould inhibitors that may be detrimental to the bees, and neutral cure does'nt mean it's harmless, it just means it won't affect most materials it's applied to.
Ordinary silicone continues to give off chemicals for a long time after it's cured, that's why you can't use it with self cleaning glass. If you were to put a bead of silicone on self cleaning glass it will stop the glass working for 50mm either side of the bead.
An alternative would be one of the new polymers, use it like silicone but far superior in everyway, dearer though!
Of course someone will say that they've used ordinary nuetral cure with no problems for years, they probably have, but why take the risk, use aquarium silicone and bee safe.

 

[Hombre]

This is what I used last year for my Ashforth type feeders http://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-gp-silicone-clear-310ml/35887.

I routed the inside surfaces of the sides, back and weir with a 5mm router bit, filled the appropriate slots for the floor with silicone, glued the other relevant joints and squeezed it all together and cramped it up until set and then drilled and screwed the joints.

No problems at all. Thymol in the syrup is also anti fungal by the way. Out of eleven made, only one leaked and that was down to a routing error and insufficient goo.

If you would use it on a work surface where food is going to be prepared, then it has to be good for the bees too. When the syrup is gone, they use the feeder as a playground and haven't come to any harm as yet.

Why did I choose that particular product? Well S'Fix isn't a million miles away, it was clear (asthetics) and mainly it was fairly cheap, which appealed to me. A lot.

 

[hughjamton]

Told you someone would be along.LOL
That's glazing silicone, apart from the mould inhibitor it's just about the same as aquarium silicone.

 

[madasafish]

Like others I seal feeders with molten wax. Better for the environment and free.

 

[Pop Alexandra]

Like others I seal feeders with molten wax. Better for the environment and free.

I only used silicone up till this point, but I think the wax alternative is a viable one. I'll surely give it a try.

 

[Ian123]

Wax has no flexibility, have used plenty when building in feeders to poly nucs no problem. I would be inclined to stick with the better quality sanitary or aquarium type double the price but how many tubes do you need!!

 

[user 6228]

If you would use it on a work surface where food is going to be prepared, then it has to be good for the bees too.[/B]

Thats not a good rule to follow slavishly. You are probably right for bees who seem to be rather tolerant to lots of nasty stuff. But other animals do have very different reactions to things that are innocuous to us, e.g. Cats who are notoriously sensitive to food additives and foods we consume readily. Don't feed cats cranberry products or chocolate or processed meats.