B-rush

Between frequent heavy showers yesterday, I managed to get a couple of coats of paint onto the outside of the first completed hive.

Covered in paint afterwards, as usual!

I decided to paint the outside of the brood box, supers and lid with a couple of coats of water based timber paint from Wilkinsons which was much cheaper than the Cuprinol and pretty much the same stuff (£11.00 for 2.5 litres).
This hive is being painted in buttermilk (milky white) and is going to look great (until the weather gets to it after a season or two Ed.)
The general advice is not to paint the insides of the hive in case it affects the bees in some way so I've left that pure timber with no treatment. I'm told that a coat of petroleum jelly on the edges such as tops of brood box's and super's and crown boards etc. will make it easier to prise these bits apart later as the bees won't use propolis on areas treated with this stuff - so I'll do that when I'm ready to set up the hives.
The lid (pictured above) has half-blind box joints on the corners which I've also glued and pinned for strength. I deviated from the plans a bit here and caused a problem for myself. I had a bit of spare timber for the sides which was a bit thicker than the MAFF plans suggested. It has the correct internal dimensions but externally it's a bit bigger. This has meant that the galvanised lid I was going to get for it 'off the shelf' won't fit so I'll have to get one made bespoke (doh, more money! Ed.).
Still, I'm fecking up so you won't have to! More to follow...