# Motor oil to Paint hive boxes



## tommyt (Aug 7, 2010)

I didn't want to drift the thread


> Painting hive boxes


so I started this somewhere in the discussions on the boards I visit. I have seen top-bar hives that appear to have been Varnished or something like it?
The owner said he user's motor oil as his Hive box treatment 
In this thread I don't remember folks challenging him about it 
To me I am concerned I also have good access to Motor Oil 
What are your thoughts 
The more I think of the thread I may have posted to it? but I have since 
thought about Toxicity and a few other things, So whats your opinion 
on Motor oil instead of Paint

Tommyt


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## Sherpa1 (Dec 10, 2005)

I think that motor oil to paint hives would work as well as paint would work to lubricate your car engine.


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Makes as much sense as putting oil-based paint in the engine! Used oil is hazmat - full of heavy metals, some toxic to all life. I get paint cheaper than motor oil, and paint is engineered and tested for painting. A gallon of paint is the price of a quart of oil at Home Depot, oops!


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## fish_stix (May 17, 2009)

That is positively a dumb thing to do. Every time you work your hives you'll be getting oil all over your tools and clothing. Not to mention petroleum products that the bees have to crawl around on. I say this from experience as a contractor; we use form oil (light petroleum) on the concrete forms and it never completely dries out. Always a mess to handle.


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## Omie (Nov 10, 2009)

How about using some of that spilled BP oil in the Gulf of Mexico to paint your hives with? I bet you could get a whole bunch of it for FREE! :lpf:


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## Countryboy (Feb 15, 2009)

We had an oil well on the farm I grew up on. Back in those days, the oil well guys had a tar pit beside the tanks that brine was drained into, and it would collect spilled crude also. That crude oil was really thick - almost like a tar or grease.

We would get a bucket of that greasy crude, and paint the wooden decks on wagons as a preservative every few years. We also used it to paint weathered boards on sheds. We'd also paint it on old farm equipment like plows and discs to keep them from rusting.

The EPA would probably frown on this nowdays.

I think the oil works more to waterproof than to actually preserve the wood.

Motor oil is a lot thinner, and porous wood would really absorb a ton of it. Motor oil often has a bunch of synthetic compounds in it also. I would also be concerned about toxic chemicals in the close proximity of the bees.

As kids, we would take soup cans half full of used motor oil, and we would pick Japanese beetles off Mom's rosebushes and drop them in the oil to kill them. That is my experience with bugs and oil - not the combination I want for my bees.


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## tommyt (Aug 7, 2010)

fixed

Tommyt


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

"Where" they really?

You can't spell PCB w/out a Bee.


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## tommyt (Aug 7, 2010)

sqkcrk said:


> "Where" they really?
> 
> You can't spell PCB w/out a Bee.


sqkcrk If you can't provide any good to the thread Please move on 
If my typo's have given a pee taste in your Cheerios 
The bad taste will go away sooner or later, 
Your rudeness may last a Lifetime

To all the other beesource members
Hope you all can handle my Grammer,
It is not meant to anger anyone
Tommyt


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## raosmun (Sep 10, 2009)

Use the correct tool for the job! Paint! If you want to use "oil" then use linsead oil, but it needs to be applied correctly. In either case just try to get paint to stick to oiled wood when you find out the oil was not a good idea. I have found that the newer "deck" stains/preservatives work very well. However the woodwear needs to air out for a few weeks before adding bees.
At $5/gal. for miscolered paint/stain at Lowes/HD why risk Used Oil.
Just my two cents worth.:scratch:


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## tommyt (Aug 7, 2010)

Here is the Guy and the picture of a couple of KTBH's he has done with used motor oil

http://robo.bushkillfarms.com/

http://www.bushkillfarms.com/gallery2/d/860-1/100_0596.JPG


Tommyt


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

tommyt said:


> sqkcrk If you can't provide any good to the thread Please move on
> If my typo's have given a pee taste in your Cheerios
> The bad taste will go away sooner or later,
> Your rudeness may last a Lifetime
> ...


Your grammer is fine, I just wonder why someone who seems otherwise intelligent doesn't know the difference between "where" and "were". I couldn't see how it could have been a typo.

I have trouble spelling lots of words, because often they don't sound like they are spelled. But, well, apparently you have a thin skin about this.

I believe that there are better things to paint beehives w/ and exposure to used motor oil can't be good for bees. That's my contribution.

Where on the above links do these photos appear? I clicked on them and found nothing like what was suggested.


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## Scrapfe (Jul 25, 2008)

tommyt said:


> ... So whats your opinion on Motor oil instead of Paint ...


In the dim dark and distant past, when men were men and bees were healthy, used motor oil was painted on lots of things for any number of reasons, on Rover to cure his mange, on barns to preserve the wood, on the backs of cows to carry insecticide applications, on unpaved roads and racetracks to settle the dust, and people even poured buckets full of ‘burnt’ motor oil around their home foundation, outbuildings, driveways, sidewalks and fences, to act as a herbicide. The one thing you have yet to mention is what happens if you need to char the inside of your brood boxes and supers to sterilize them, or someone gets carried away with his smoker, or a grass fire breaks out, or a tobacco user flips a burning butt near a stack of stored woodenware.... oops, ....fire hazard!

All my life I was someway involved with the auto wrecking business. Just across the creek from my property line was a feral colony living in a metal 5 gallon oilcan. The can washed down stream and came to rest in a patch of saw briars, guarded by a barbed wire fence. I know the can remained there, half buried in the mud, for at least two Summers, then one night the next flood carried it away. I've seen more bee colonies inside Diesel and gasoline fuel tanks than I can count on my fingers and toes. Never seemed to hurt them, at least they looked healthy and strong from the outside. One colony or its successor swarms lived in a Diesel tank, I know for 20 years, until the bus the fuel tank was under got recycled.

That said, I would NOT paint the outside of my boxes with used or ‘burnt’ motor oil.
Compromise, and use a good grade of oil based paint instead.

The link to boiling or treating woodenware with pariffin wax was intresting.
So intresting in fact that I decided to add this link to what paraffin wax is made from, enjoy the read or read it and weep.
http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4965651_how-paraffin-wax-made.html


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## tommyt (Aug 7, 2010)

Here he Say's he sprayed it on

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,29246.40.html


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## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

tommyt said:


> Here he Say's he sprayed it on
> [/url]


How long after spraying does used motor oil dry enough that you can lift boxes without coating you hands or not come off on your clothes if you happen to brush against it or just not make your apiary stink like a Jiffy Lube?

Paint is cheap enough for me to not have to resort to spraying hazardous materials where they don't belong.

Wayne


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

We would soak our fence posts in oil and diesel as a preservative. It would water proof the wood, but also kill any insects that tried to live in it. As a wood preservative and insecticide it works great, but not what i would want on my hive. Especially when you can pick up paint and stain on the Oops section in any hardware store for about $5 per gal. 

Dan


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## tommyt (Aug 7, 2010)

Here is the picture he posted when he said he used a spay gun and used motor oil
I have not tried this, the other Post also stated that Back in the day creosote was used sometime


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