When you think of beehives, I bet you think of rows of lurid pink and rusty red and hospital green boxes, all stacked on top of each other. I haven't quite got to the bottom of these colour combinations. Are bees attracted to such mishmash colours? Bees like blue flowers apparently, but pretty-flower-blue is not a beehive colour that springs to my mind. Are beekeepers colour blind? Is the paint used to do the boxes the returns to the paint shop - you know, that colour you brought home but the family said "No, never, what were you thinking?".
Whatever, bee boxes do need to be preserved. The wood is untreated, so the bees are not poisoned, so it needs some weather proofing. Our beekeepers Will and David, here, have come up with an ingenious method of dipping them in linseed oil.
So, a pictorial step-by-step of dipping bee boxes:
The oil comes in huge and heavy drums, and is poured into the heating vat.
Bee boxes arrive as flat slabs. They are all screwed together first, hundreds and hundreds of them.
Once the oil is hot, in go the boxes.
Soaking away, like a good spa.
Hauling them out. Looks easy, but they are really heavy once they are in the oil. Good thing our guys are really strong.
Dripping on the side for a while.
Out on the drying rack for a few days to let the oil soak in properly, and become un-sticky.
Now isn't this so much more beautiful than hospital green?
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