# Color Of Bee Boxes



## beehoppers (Jun 16, 2005)

I don't know about red. As a lifelong Duke fan, and of course having the paint, I painted one hive Duke blue and named her Duke 3 years ago.
This hive has been nothing but trouble. Swarms, goes queenless, makes no honey, makes tons of honey but lives in the top box.
I repainted her white with a flower with green leaves on the front and renamed her Jade.


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## RDY-B (May 20, 2007)

Bees are red blind so the boxes will look black-they need a color that reflects a wave length of ultra violet radiation -(type of magnetic radiation) from that color -certain spectrum of light that is reflected-if you want them to use the color of the box to orient to other than that you are right the bees dont care-RDY-B


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## jasontatro (Feb 6, 2008)

My best and strongest hive is red.


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## pgg (Jun 19, 2005)

I use light colors (white,yellow,etc) due to HOT summers we get to enjoy!!


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## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

I use all white, except for the ones that I paint a different color!!! Really though, white is my favorite because it goes with my house. I do have a bunch of equipment that is kind of an olive green. I found two gallons of mis-mixed oil base house paint for $1 a gallon last year. I painted some equipment being used in an out yard that sat close to a road. I didn't want too much attention so the green made the hives kind of disappear...except to the bees. In the long run, I don't think the bees will care what color you paint them. I do agree with the thoughts regarding darker colors heating up faster that lighter colors in the sun and lighter colors staying cooler.


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## JOHN HINCHMAN (Feb 28, 2008)

I Use Just Deeps For Everything So I Think I Will Use The Red For My Suppers Only


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## JOHN HINCHMAN (Feb 28, 2008)

*Fructuse Corn Syrup*

My Wife Wants Pink, Ha Ha


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## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

Well, do the math quick. Factor in shipping. If you can get a bunch of sugar cheap and you can afford the time (as in, you supply free labor that wouldn't be used elsewhere), then make your own. If not, get the syrup. Many beekeepers use HFCS that they purchase in bulk so that they're ready to go. If you say that you don't want to cook sugar everyday, it sounds like you're pretty much going to have to use HFCS instead! Is there a bee club or coop near you where you can participate in a fraction of a bulk purchase? That's always an option.


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## No_Bivy (Nov 25, 2008)

My kids want to paint them with flowers and other animals....is this a bad idea?


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## riverrat (Jun 3, 2006)

JOHN HINCHMAN said:


> My Wife Wants Pink, Ha Ha


My daughter and wife went to the paint store to get paint that had been mixed to the wrong tint. When I got home I had about 30 pink honey supers:scratch: Im still trying to figure out if they bought off tint paint or bought pink just to have some fun. anyhow the bees dont mind it.


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## Bizzybee (Jan 29, 2006)

I don't know if it's mismatched or people just decide they don't want it after they see it on their walls. 

When I was house hunting before I bought this place, I ran into one house that had every single room painted is some shade of pink. Everything in the house was pink, floors, fixtures, the entire decor. I wondered if the previous owners had gone insane and were committed, was why the house was on the market! 

Still, I have seen pink hives around, got a few myself. I kinda like em.


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## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

Painting designs are fine. Did that last year when I bought a nuc and brought it home. We transferred the nuc into a medium with a flower design painted on it to help reduce drifting. Don't know if it helped but it looked cool.


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## Bizzybee (Jan 29, 2006)

bivy, let em have at it. It really doesn't matter what colors or designs. Only that you might stay away from dark colors if your hives are getting direct sun in the hot part of the day.

Might help to get the kids involved more to let them do their thing with them. I think it's a great idea!


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## soupcan (Jan 2, 2005)

*Paint Colors*

We have been using mis matched paints for the last 15 years.
Had a lady driving a van pull into a bee yard we had next to well traveled highway.
Of course there were about 7 different colors of boxes in this yard.
And of course the van had the windows down & about 5 kids on board.
And by the way I just pulled honey in this yard.
She came a bombing down the lane to ask as to why we use so many colors of paint.
I explained that $2 bucks a gallon as opposed $20 for white.
She gave me a strange look & smiled & ok!
She left quite a few bugs for extra riders.
Don't get to dark with your base colors as we have found that in the summer some hive will be much warmer just to the touch.
Seems there will be more "bearding" on the warmer hives.


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## No_Bivy (Nov 25, 2008)

Bizzybee said:


> bivy, let em have at it. It really doesn't matter what colors or designs. Only that you might stay away from dark colors if your hives are getting direct sun in the hot part of the day.
> 
> Might help to get the kids involved more to let them do their thing with them. I think it's a great idea!


Thanks, I was hoping someone would say it was OK.....Having a 2 and 5 year old, your always looking for something to do....


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

My wife had me stain hers with green deck stain. 
I have to admit they look nice.


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## jesuslives31548 (May 10, 2008)

most of mine are white, except honey supers are green, blue, yellow, pink and others colors to help keep from mixing with my brood. I run the same size box for brood and honey.


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## BeeCurious (Aug 7, 2007)

*Von Frisch: blue, yellow, black, and white*

In BEES Their Vision, Chemical Senses, and Language 1950

Karl Von Frisch wrote:

"Beekeepers should use only blue, yellow, black, and white. Where they they must use the same color repeatedly, they should change the color pattern formed by adjacent hives, because bees pay attention to the color of the neighboring hives as well as to their own."


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## sds888 (May 26, 2008)

I am glad this post was here I was thinking about painting one of my hives Clemson orange with a tiger paw on the front but it would probably be to hot. I will have to keep thinking about it.


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## Bizzybee (Jan 29, 2006)

If I was a bee I wouldn't live in a box with Clemson colors anyhow! :lookout:


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Since bees can't see red you'll make them invisible if you do that.


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## mudlake (Nov 26, 2007)

I would put an S on the front of mine but they wouldn't know what it means. Syracuce???? Tony


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## AltamontBee (Mar 26, 2008)

I have three barn red hives. No complaints from the girls yet.

Jennifer


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## kopeck (May 26, 2007)

AltamontBee said:


> I have three barn red hives. No complaints from the girls yet.
> 
> Jennifer



Same here. All my deeps are Barn Red (which is an inexpensive exterior latex paint). My supers are all different colors, Red, White and Silver!

K


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## Bill Dickerson (Nov 8, 2008)

*UV Paint*

I had considered using UV paint with different patterns over the main paint to reduce drift.

Has anyone used this type paint?

Do you think it was reduce drift?


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## Brian Camp (Jan 7, 2009)

This is a good subject. I was reading a little while back, that you should paint boxes colors and or put designs on them so those guys....sorry gals  will know which hive is which. 
Since we are speaking of colors is it true that when wearing darker colors, at the hive, that it can tend to make the bees more aggresive?

The New Guy,
Brian


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## Bizzybee (Jan 29, 2006)

Maybe its possible under certain conditions? I've heard it said many many times. Could be wives tales or superstitions? I don't know where it comes from but I have never personally noticed any more aggregation from the bees wearing dark colors. Early in the season I wear whatever I find next in the rack. Summer I wear light colors because they are cooler.

But from then and evermore, whatever you wear will become bee working clothes only because propolis has a way of staying with you forever!


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## ScadsOBees (Oct 2, 2003)

I say paint them whatever color you want. Unless you're doing natural beekeeping, then it has to be some brown with a tree bark detail. Mossy oak perhaps?

I asked the bees and told them to tell me if they don't like the colors, and so far none of them has told me they don't like it.

Rick


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## ScadsOBees (Oct 2, 2003)

Brian Camp said:


> Since we are speaking of colors is it true that when wearing darker colors, at the hive, that it can tend to make the bees more aggresive?
> 
> The New Guy,
> Brian


Yes, bees don't like dark colors. Black gloves = bad. Black shirt = BEAR. Sometimes its the bees as well.

I wear a spring jacket all year that has color, darker than white, with a bit of darker blue, but that isn't a problem.

I was helping a somewhat inexperienced friend and he was wondering why his bees were so aggressive. I went over to help him, and the first thing I noticed was his dark sweater and his black gloves! Once we fixed that things were much better for him. He thought it was because the bees I gave him were so gentle, but I'm sure it was the color change.

Rick


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

The best color to use when painting your equipment is whatever your local store has on hand in the returned or oops paint collection. In other words, the cheapest paint available.


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## gloodinofdoodin (Feb 1, 2008)

sds888 said:


> I am glad this post was here I was thinking about painting one of my hives Clemson orange with a tiger paw on the front but it would probably be to hot. I will have to keep thinking about it.


Please don't paint it clemson orange. Your bees will do everything in their power (even to their own harm) to outperform my bees alone.


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## beekinjax (Jan 7, 2009)

*Chomp Chomp*

If you want them to do better than anyone else's bees, best paint them orange and blue and set them next to a swamp.


GO GATORS!


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## Hambone (Mar 17, 2008)

If you paint 8 hives 8 different colors. At the end of the season I bet the hive painted Burnt Orange would be the strongest.


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## Brian Camp (Jan 7, 2009)

lol I like the mossy oak bit . Thanks for the info. I personally will stay away from too dark of a color for my hives due to our hot summers. 115F plus some days. 

Thanks Again,
Brian


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## Bill Dickerson (Nov 8, 2008)

*Patterns*

I remember seeing something showing patterns displayed on the front of the Boxes to prevent drifting. 

I don't remember where, but a comment had been made that the bees didn't see a pattern very well. I think it was vertical stripes.

Does anyone know about this?


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## BeeCurious (Aug 7, 2007)

*Bee Books*



Bill Dickerson said:


> I remember seeing something showing patterns displayed on the front of the Boxes to prevent drifting.
> 
> I don't remember where, but a comment had been made that the bees didn't see a pattern very well. I think it was vertical stripes.
> 
> Does anyone know about this?


Two books that go into the colors and patterns recognized by honey bees are:

The Honey Bee by by James L. Gould and Carol Grant Gould 

Bees: Their Vision, Chemical Senses, and Language. by Karl Von FRISCH

"The Honey Bee" has some fantastic photos in it.


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## Bill Dickerson (Nov 8, 2008)

*Memory slipping*

_As far as shape they can tell the difference between a circle, square, triangle and a plus sign. They can not tell the difference between one, two or three strips. I group my hives in pairs instead of rows, that way I reduce drifting._

I found it! 

Magnet-Man wrote the above in another string about painting.

I will have to ask his source.


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## Ski (Jan 18, 2007)

There is an article in the December American Bee Journal under "Two good books for your winter reading". Bees, Biology and Management by Peter G. Kevan show some patterns that bees can discriminate between and shapes recognized by bees. They include circle, square, triangle, diamond, bar at an angle, 3 vertical bars, kind of a "Y" and an X. The article on this book finishes with the following:
Read this book with this caveat: If you are not already a bee geek when you start, you will be one when you finish. Don't say you weren't warned. It is a treasure of a book. 
Good Luck,
Ski


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## magnet-man (Jul 10, 2004)

*Bees, Biology and Management by Peter G. Kevan*

I am a bee geek but that is one expensive book! SKI want to lend me your copy or trade for a jacket? 

http://www.beesfordevelopment.org/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/338/language/en

I did purchase the other two books though.


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## Bill Dickerson (Nov 8, 2008)

*Cornell*

I checked to see if Cornell had a copy but I could not find one.


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## Ski (Jan 18, 2007)

Just to clarify, I have the December American Bee Journal that has some shapes from the book that bees recognize. ABJ does a nice job of describing the book. I do not have the book. I guess the December ABJ for a jacket is out of the question lol.


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## JOHN HINCHMAN (Feb 28, 2008)

Thanks For All The Advice


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## Blossom (Nov 29, 2008)

Some quick questions... Why did some say if the hives was orange it would be more productive? I'm getting 2 hives for April delivery and I read where you should try to take attention away from the boxes so I was going to paint the back and sides light green to blend into the yard folage and leave the front and top white. How would light green bee as they will be with some shade? :s


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## dhood (May 26, 2008)

I believe they were refering to orange as -Clemson team.


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## Bill Dickerson (Nov 8, 2008)

*Color*

I think the biggest issue is heat transfer due to the color but I suppose that depends on the area you live.

I think if I painted a hive in my area (Memphis) anything other than white the bees would spend a couple of months trying to keep the hive cool and having heat strokes.

I would check to see what the locals do.

I have heard that many in the city will camouflage in a way so the hives so they are not obvious.

Although everybody knows if you paint it Clemson colors all of the bees will leave and never return and who can blame them.


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## sds888 (May 26, 2008)

I like all the comments about the Clemson hives. I got the Clemson Color paint from walmart the other night and my wife is going to make me paw stencil. GO TIGERS!!!!!!! It will be interesting how they do. Of course I will have to put them in the shade.


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## Matt NY (Jan 14, 2006)

Folks still paint boxes huh?

I figure they breath better without paint.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>I figure they breath better without paint.

As did Doolittle, Taylor, Miller etc.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#stoppainting


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