Garth,
Interesting, because all my hives are painted dark grey. Also used small cell size in one brood chamber. No loss
of bees in the past few years, but I use Apistan and crisco patties, so who is to tell what is going on.
I painted them after reading that varroa can be killed by high temperatures. Love to experiment.
Bill Truesdell
Bath, ME
 
Garth wrote:
 
> Hi All
>
> The last week or so I have spent many many hours manning an
> observation hive at a Science Festival and I noted the range in hive
> temperature over that time.
>
> Now my observations previously have shown that brood hatches faster
> over warmer periods, sometimes by as much as a day earlier than
> expected (esp with queens).
>
> Now if we rear our bees in small cell size dimension combs and maybe
> paint the front and back of the hive blue so that early morning hive
> temps are slightly higher and afternoon temps are unaffected one
> would be able to raise the hive temp at times when it will not badly
> effect the bees (eg midday) and thus speed the brood rearing cycle
> up.
>
> I don't know what effect increased temp has on varroa.
>
> But hopefully in this way one could get the brood to hatch before a
> full varroa reproductive cycle has been filled??
>
> Just a thought.
>
> Keep well
>
> Garth
>
> Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
> Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
> Eastern Cape Prov.
> South Africa
>
> Time = Honey
> If parents taught kids about the birds and bees, guys would believe they were half the women they used to be!!
> Standard Disclaimer applies to this post.