an alternate take:

In a discussion with Nick Calderone about painting hives different colors, he said that a variety of colors was useful for nucs in helping the queens to orient, but painting production hives was counterproductive. Better to paint them all the same color. If the supers are all different colors every time you come into the yard and add or subtract supers, the hives all look completely different. But with a uniform color, they look pretty much the same (taller or shorter, maybe). Also, placing them widely spaced is a lot more useful than marking the hives. He wanted at least six feet between hives. 

Disclaimer: I don't do any of this, but it makes perfect sense to me.

PLB

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