# Bee Box Polystyrene Hive - To paint the interior or not?



## costigaj (Oct 28, 2015)

I'm setting up a new Bee Box polystyrene hive next Spring. I see it's almost universal opinion they be painted on the exterior. Makes sense. My question is should they be painted on the inside. Some say yes, some say no. For those with experience with the Finland Bee Box hives, what do you do? Paint or not to paint the interior? What paint do you use if you do paint?


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

Do some due diligence. There are plenty of videos and forum discussions of EPS hives. A general rule is that ants, wax moths, and sometimes bees will chew on exposed areas of polystyrene. Paint inside and out.

http://www.modernbeekeepingusa.com/videos-and-downloads


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

I was given a styrofoam bee hive with bees. It's at least 4 years old and is not painted at all.
The only thing I don't like about it is the Styrofoam SBB. It's on a roof of a restaurant all by itself and I neglect it because there are 48 others. I seem to get tangled up in helping "bee-havers" and this is one of them stories. Restaurant has bees and they have no desire to be beekeepers but they will take the honey.








Sorry for the rotated pic. Fixing it is rough because I emailed it to myself from my phone. It's upright in the phone. Upright in the laptop but when I post it it gets rotated. Lost...completely lost.


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## hulstbee (Apr 25, 2014)

I started 4 of them this year, and have more painted up for next year. I see no reason to paint the inside of the boxes. I did paint all surfaces of the bottom and top, and applied 4 coats to the inside of the feeder, per the instructions. Use any good quality exterior latex paint. I think the paint/primer-in-one products are the best. I have used Dutch Boy, Pittsburgh, Bunker-Hill, and Sherwin Williams. Probably slightly partial to the Dutch Boy Maxbond, but they all work. Go to the store and ask where they keep their mistints(stuff people brought back because the color didn't quite match what they wanted). Most stores sell these for $5/gallon, keep watching and you can pick up quite the array of colors if you wish. Beats $30+/gallon for the really good stuff.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Here is that photo _un-rotated_ .... 









What's with the (appears to be) yellow paint surrounding the rooftop hive? :s A safety zone??? 


[hr] [/hr]

Re painting the inside of hive bodies, some beekeepers even paint the insides of _wooden_ hives ....
http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?306734-Paint-the-inside

.


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## costigaj (Oct 28, 2015)

Hulstbee

I take it you like them?



hulstbee said:


> I started 4 of them this year, and have more painted up for next year. I see no reason to paint the inside of the boxes. I did paint all surfaces of the bottom and top, and applied 4 coats to the inside of the feeder, per the instructions. Use any good quality exterior latex paint. I think the paint/primer-in-one products are the best. I have used Dutch Boy, Pittsburgh, Bunker-Hill, and Sherwin Williams. Probably slightly partial to the Dutch Boy Maxbond, but they all work. Go to the store and ask where they keep their mistints(stuff people brought back because the color didn't quite match what they wanted). Most stores sell these for $5/gallon, keep watching and you can pick up quite the array of colors if you wish. Beats $30+/gallon for the really good stuff.


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## costigaj (Oct 28, 2015)

Rader Sidetrack said:


> Here is that photo _un-rotated_ ....
> 
> View attachment 28619
> 
> ...


Maybe a bee landing zone


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

It's a mat of some kind. Never really noticed it. That hive was sort of donated to me when a fellow beekeeper from the university went away.


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## hulstbee (Apr 25, 2014)

costigaj said:


> Hulstbee
> 
> I take it you like them?


So far, so good. I have 3 top bar hives that I wintered successfully last Winter, but I don't like how long it takes to work them, so I wanted to try the Lang format. Chose the Bee Boxes cause I figured a little extra r-value sure wouldn't hurt here in MN. I'm sure there will be some things to figure out as far as their management goes, but that's part of the fun.


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## becsbeehive (Oct 29, 2016)

I've been painting on the inside as well for years now


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