Should you paint your topbar hive?

Q. Does your hive require painting (on the outside) like the Langstroth Beehives? Thanks again and looking forward to holistic beekeeping.

A. We have designed the Backyard Hive to have good longevity without painting. This includes choosing wood with minimal, cambered, end grain on the side panels and orientating the panels inward to minimize warping. The holes in the hive are all pre-drilled and counter sunk to limit splitting. Not painting the hive is based on the holistic approach to bee keeping, but there are several natural alternative paints. (See below). Keep in mind many natural paints have beeswax as an ingredient. If you have bears, like I do, you don’t want to use these!!

Painting of the Hive really comes down to personal philosophy. I suppose science could find nothing dangerous to the bees if the hive was painted with non-toxic paint, but from a Bio-Dynamic point of view, chemical paint is "Energetically" not appreciated by the bees.

When I showed the Backyard Hive to Günther Hawk last summer he spoke in detail about the importance of not painting the hive. Günther is a highly sought-after speaker on Bio-dynamic gardening and runs several natural beekeeping seminars a year. See the link to Gunther’s book below. I would really suggest this book as it talks about many of the aspects of holistic beekeeping that you just would not find in most books on bees.

Small cracks are going to develop in the hive, whether painted or not, but the bees will seal these up with propolis.

As for the top of the Backyard Hive, you want to cover it from the elements. I have one hive that I have purposely let the top plywood be exposed to the elements and it is still fine after two years but is showing separation. It was my decision to not add a waterproof top for the hive. The main consideration was for the people who do not want non-natural elements on the hive. Also many people wanted to have the hive match their house roof and wanted to use tiles from their roof. Others wanted to use their own natural/earth based paint. Some backyard beekeepers just wanted to be creative and put some of their own unique ideas to work. If you have a unique Backyard Hive lid to share, we would love to see it!

Natural Alternative Paints: NewBuilder

Gunther Hawk’s book: Toward Saving The Honeybee by Gunther Hauk