Continuing with my tradition of rookie mistakes in my first 12 months of stove ownership, I was about 5 months late getting the vent plugged. As you might imagine, there is a fair amount of rust in the stove. Oops. You live, you learn.
Interestingly enough, there is also a bees nest in there somewhere. I think it's in the OAK, as I saw a bee hovering around the outside opening a week or so before I closed it. Now, I'm seeing occasional bees inside the stove. There is one crawling on the glass right now.
I'm hoping to replace all the gaskets before I fire it back up for the season, but I'm not sure what to do about the bees. The OAK and vent have been plugged for a few weeks now, but the bees are still apparently alive. Press the "on" button, unplugged the oak and vent and see what happens? I probably need to pull the cover off the OAK and look inside, but I'm not keen on bees in my face, and I'm not sure that shooting bee spray into the OAK is such a great idea either.
Thoughts? Besides plug the vent sooner next time?
Interestingly enough, there is also a bees nest in there somewhere. I think it's in the OAK, as I saw a bee hovering around the outside opening a week or so before I closed it. Now, I'm seeing occasional bees inside the stove. There is one crawling on the glass right now.
I'm hoping to replace all the gaskets before I fire it back up for the season, but I'm not sure what to do about the bees. The OAK and vent have been plugged for a few weeks now, but the bees are still apparently alive. Press the "on" button, unplugged the oak and vent and see what happens? I probably need to pull the cover off the OAK and look inside, but I'm not keen on bees in my face, and I'm not sure that shooting bee spray into the OAK is such a great idea either.
Thoughts? Besides plug the vent sooner next time?