Dick Allen wrote: >>From the chapter on vision in Ronald Riband’s “The Behaviour and Social >Life of Honeybees”: > >[Koch, P. (1934)] reported that he had kept 28 colonies in one apiary for >14 years, and that during this time the hives had always been painted six >different colours. The average honey yields from the differently coloured >hives had shown consistent differences, thus: dark blue 48 ˝ lb., black 42 >lb., brown 40 lb., white 26 ˝ lb., light green 22 lb., pink 21 lb. This >result indicates that bees had shown a preference for darker-coloured hives >and had drifted to these from the others. In Europe, where colonies are >usually kept close together in beehouses, the painting of hive is >frequently advocated in order to help the bees to identify their own hive; >Koch’s results demonstrate that this system can have disadvantages. > > Do you know where his hives were located? Heat also comes into play with dark hives, so if it was a factor then maybe a beehouse with colors differentiating hives would not make a difference, since all the hives would have the same temp. Would be interesting to know if anyone who uses a beehouse and colors has a difference in production between marking colors. I paint all my hives dark blue and do outproduce most in the area. But my guess is my bees would not fare as well in a hot summer location. Bill Truesdell Bath, ME > >