"Of course, that is a possibility, but intuitively it seems to me that the internal hive temps would not be radically affected by the hive color, unless they were in a very sunny, hot location."

My hives are painted the darkest green color that Home Depot Behr paint supplies as a standard color.  The yard is in my woods.  I see a dramatic difference in morning flight times depending on which hives have a little direct sun on them and which are in the shade.  Those in sun may well be flying one to two hours before those in shade.  It is not a matter of colony strength.  The nucs get much more sun than the production hives and the nucs are the ones that fly early.  This is even true in early spring before trees leaf out.  Just the bare branches and trunks provide enough shade on the production hives to delay flight times.  One end of the row of nucs gets more morning sun than the other end of the row.  The end in the morning sun is the first to fly.  A weak nuc in the sun will fly before a strong nuc in the shade.  Is it temp?  Or is it just sun shining in the entrance?  Beats me.  Might be the same if they were painted white.  No data so can not draw a conclusion.

Dick

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