Honey bees are not picky about the color of their hives. As long as there is no paint on the inside, your bees will be fine. It’s more important to please the beekeeper. Here are some considerations:
In the past, most hives were white. White is especially good in warmer climates where a light color will reflect a lot of light and heat. In cooler climates, it’s nice to have a color that will absorb heat, such as green or brown. But if your hives are not in the sun, the outside color won’t have much of an effect on the inside temperature.
A little color can be helpful
I’ve seen hives—especially on college campuses—painted with murals, fraternity insignia, or wild free-form designs. Some beekeepers like to paint different size boxes with different colors, so they can tell them apart. If you have multiple sizes that are hard to tell apart—like mediums and shallows—a little color is a nice thing.
The White House bee hive is painted in light pastels. The last time I saw a picture of it, it had two brood boxes—one pink and one blue—topped with green honey supers. It sounds kind of terrible, but I thought it looked good. All the colors were very light with just a hint of pigment.
Suburban beekeepers often like to paint their hives to match their houses so they will blend in and be less conspicuous. Some beekeepers like green because it disappears in the foliage and is less likely to be spotted by vandals.
While some folks choose the same brand and color every time to make touch-up a breeze, other folks buy paint that has been returned to the store, colors that have been phased out, or surplus from various projects. These leftovers are typically available at an attractive price.
Reducing drift
Sometimes, when hives are stacked closely together or when they are arranged in long rows, the bees can become confused about which one is home. When the hives all look the same and the colony pheromones are intermingled, the bees opt for the ones on the end of the rows.
This migration to the outermost hives is called drift. To reduce drift, some beekeepers decorate the front of their hives with distinctive shapes and colors. I’ve also seen the lids painted with big, bold letters that face up—sort of like landing pads for helicopters. Does this help the bees? I have no idea, but the beekeepers seem to enjoy it.
Paint is full of vile things, including fungicides, so always remember to keep the paint on the outside of the hive and let it dry completely before you install the bees. Painted woodenware lasts a whole lot longer than unpainted, so it is well worth coating anything that will be exposed to the weather.
Also, see More on Painting Bee Hives.
Rusty
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FAQs
White is especially good in warmer climates where a light color will reflect a lot of light and heat. In cooler climates, it's nice to have a color that will absorb heat, such as green or brown. But if your hives are not in the sun, the outside color won't have much of an effect on the inside temperature.
What color should you paint a bee hive? ›
From a practical standpoint, painting all your hives the same color allows for the maximum interchangeability of your equipment. That's why the all-white color scheme has stood the test of time, particularly with commercial operations.
What not to paint on a beehive? ›
The most important rule is to paint the outside of the hive but leave any interior parts alone. The exterior portions of your hive need extra protection from the elements, but any paint on the inside can affect your honey bees and the honey they make.
What paint colors attract bees? ›
Bright colors like yellow, orange, and blue can attract bees as they resemble flowers. The more reflective the color is, the more a bug will be attracted to it. Avoid bright colors as they will attract pollinating insects to your walls.
What are the best colors for bees? ›
They can also see blue-green, blue, violet, and “bee's purple.” Bee's purple is a combination of yellow and ultraviolet light. That's why humans can't see it. The most likely colors to attract bees, according to scientists, are PURPLE, VIOLET and BLUE.
What colours to avoid bees? ›
Avoid Certain Colors
Colors like those are found on certain flowers which attract bees so avoid clothing that uses blue, violet, or purple colors to prevent bees from being attracted to you.
What color makes bees aggressive? ›
General honeybee aggression
Common sources of attack stimulus for honeybees include alarm pheromone, vibrations, carbon dioxide, hair, and dark colors (Crane 1990). This makes sense because mammals, which are common predators of bees, are usually hairy, dark colored, and exhale carbon dioxide.
Should you paint a beehive bottom board? ›
Painting Tips
You also don't want to expose the inside of a hive to paint; it's not necessary. That means the inside of an outercover doesn't require paint. The inside of supers and bottom boards do not require paint. I do paint the bottom side of bottom boards because they are exposed to the elements.
Do you paint the inner cover of a beehive? ›
To paint bee hives, use a latex paint, it dries faster and is easier to clean off of you. Don't paint the inside of the hive, only the outside and the hive rims. Also don't paint frames, inner covers and queen excluders.
What destroys beehives? ›
From mice to bears to wasps, marauding animals can wreak havoc on, and even destroy, your beehives. Some of these animal vandals eat the bees themselves while others are after the honey.
Khaki, tan, and dark colors are less attractive to wasps.” Wasps have a wide range of colors they can see and because of that color influences their behavior.
What color do bugs hate? ›
Bugs naturally are attracted to vibrant colors such as orange, yellow, or white. Colours such as blue and green will not register as vividly when viewed in the ultraviolet spectrum, which deters bugs away from those colored items.
What color do mosquitoes hate? ›
Compared to humans, mosquitoes see a smaller range of colors. One study found that red, orange, cyan (blue-green), and black tend to draw mosquitoes, while colors that make you more difficult to see can repel mosquitoes, including white, green, blue, and purple.
Does it matter what color you paint a bee hive? ›
Light paints, such as white, can help reflect sunlight and keep the hive cooler in hot temperatures. Dark paints can help absorb the sun's warmth and keep the hive warmer in the winter. Depending on the climate you live in, you may wish to choose either light or dark paint for your bee box.
What is the rarest color of bee? ›
Unlike hive builders like the honeybee, the blue calamintha is solitary and nests alone. It's also extremely rare, limited to a single Florida ecosystem, and hadn't been seen since 2016—until Kimmel and his team documented it this spring.
What color flowers do bees avoid? ›
Flowers that have evolved to attract bees as their main pollinators often are full of nectar and colored bright white, yellow, or blue. Bees cannot see the color red, which may be why flowers with red colors do not tend to attract bees.
What is the color code for bee hive? ›
The RGB values for Benjamin Moore OR-268 Bee Hive are 252, 218, 160 and the HEX code is #FCDAA0. The LRV for Benjamin Moore OR-268 Bee Hive is 73.38. The LRV stands for Light Reflectance Value and measures the percentage of light that a color reflects.
What bright colors help bees find? ›
The brilliant color in flowers is a way of attracting pollinators, such as bees. The colors of flowers help target the areas of nectar.
What is the best hive Colour in bee swarm? ›
Once you get out of mixed, white hives are the most efficient (but also the most expensive, especially mark hives). Blue/red are much cheaper.
Why are beehives painted yellow? ›
Some beekeepers do this, but there is logic behind the odd collection of colours. Bees see colours well. They see a higher spectrum than we do, from yellow through to ultra-violet, though they interpret them quite differently – for example, it is said that bees see red as black.
