Michael Housel said:

>        The wood we use in our hives may have bugs on the surface.  If you
> have ever itched after assembling your new wood boxes, it most likely was
from
> very small bugs.

Interesting.  I work with many different kinds of wood for a living, and
don't recall ever seeing "very small bugs" in that context.  Could you be
more specific?  Are you sure it's not the sawdust that dries your skin and
makes you itch?


>        The debree that you add to the walls like paint work on the footing
> holds of a bee and give the small hive beetle the advantage of movement.
I can
> go on with other problems like toxins in the hive, but I would like this
to be
> positive information.

snip

>        Seal the outside sure but leave the inside to the bees.

I think that the majority of those speaking of painting hives were referring
to the outside, not the inside.  I don't use anything inside the hive, and
have some woodenware that is just raw wood.  So far, the only major
difference seems to be some warpage in the unpainted stuff, although I'm
sure that it will rot faster over time.

I have noticed my roughsawn top bar hives are generating a lot of "frass"
from bees chewing off the rough grain inside the hive - smoothing it to
their tastes, as it were.  It's kind of like pillow stuffing.  They
apparently like wood a little smoother than roughsawn.

> The torch
> will also keep the hive in its normal air of production of honey.  Smoking
> stops as the bees are to full to sting or work for that day.  Weekly
smoking with
> a loss of one days production would mean a 1/6 increase in production
> directly to the storage of honey.

Say again?


Todd.

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