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 ½ lb., black 42
>lb., brown 40 lb., white 26 ½ 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

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