Finishing Cedar bee covers

[David Peterson MN]

I am a commercial beekeeper. I use cedar for my hive covers. In the past, i have painted my covers but after 6-7 years they begin to rot. The past few years I have left the wood natural on the new covers I have built with no rot noted after these few years. I built 1400 covers this summer that I have thought about dipping. I have read about others dipping and soaking in a tank of linseed oil and thinner. Any thoughts on this or recommendations on mixture? Thank you

[Jim Becker]

I put aluminum sheet over all the telescoping covers I've made, similar to the metal on commercially available covers. But we're not a commercial operation with many hundreds of colonies like you have.

I'm dubious about soaking in linseed oil/thinner for this application, honestly, but as you know, where there are ten beekeepers, there are eleven opinions. Given that the covers (telescoping or migratory) are "the" one hive element that has potential for standing water. If you're not stacking hives, either having a slight tilt off vertical for the whole stack or a slight incline under the cover will greatly help remove the moisture that causes deterioration from the outside. If they are rotting from the inside, that's likely being contributed to by internal moisture and you may need to seal the underside, too.

If you have not already, you may want to also drop this question at the BeeSource forum in the Hardware discussion area to see what input comes from the folks that hang out there.