# Mating Nuc Colours



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

This past summer I set up a bunch of mating nucs, and just for fun I painted them white, blue, yellow and green. 
An interesting observation from this was the blue seemed to mate the most successful queens and the green were the least successful. As a direct result of unsuccessful matings in the green we had to spend more time reinforcein those nucs.
What's the chances the green colour had anything to do with the poor matings?


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## MJC417 (Jul 26, 2008)

None, all my mating nucs are green. This was another good year, 3 out of 20 queens didn't return.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Note that green does not appear on this 'bee vision' chart ... 










Graphic linked from and more at this page ... 
http://apisuk.com/Bees/2013/05/research-bee-evolution-driven-by-flower-colour/

Perhps the green color contributes to mated queens returning to the wrong nuc.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

What sample sizes are we talking about? How many nucs of each color and how many attempts were made in each color?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

had 60 minis going, 10-15 of white, blue, yellow and green


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

Did you happen to record the percent successful for each color?

I've done white, dark brown, sky blue, and red/pink. I've never recorded the percentages based on color, nor has it occurred to me that one color was consistently better. Come to think of it, I do have one sky blue brushy 4-way queen castle that always seems to get the job done....hmmm. Maybe I should go out and buy up all the blue paint before its sold out 

What color blue are you using?


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Put them yellow disks on and you're good. Have had really good luck with them.


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

AstroBee said:


> Did you happen to record the percent successful for each color?
> 
> I've done white, dark brown, sky blue, and red/pink. I've never recorded the percentages based on color, nor has it occurred to me that one color was consistently better. Come to think of it, I do have one sky blue brushy 4-way queen castle that always seems to get the job done....hmmm. Maybe I should go out and buy up all the blue paint before its sold out
> 
> What color blue are you using?


All my mating nucs are robin's egg blue. I usually have very good success, except in later summer when the dragonflies are out. I won't be painting mine green any time soon, just in case it does prove to be a science behind the color scheme.


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## AJ Farms (Nov 22, 2011)

We have a very large and successful queen and bee supplier near us that uses exclusively green painted hives.


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