I have a bunch of pink boxes. It takes are real man, confident in his masculinity, to paint his hives pink:

http://www.sweettimeapiary.com/pics/open_hive_surgery.jpg

Thank goodness, I ran outa pink.

 

I happened to have 5 gallons of stuff they put on log buildings

http://www.drobbins.net/bee's/inspection/Dsc00729.jpg

I think it looks pretty nice
It's pricey though, I doubt I would have bought it just for hives, although, who knows, it should have good longevity

Dave

 

oh george you are quite pretty in pink...

 

I have yellow, dark purple, medium blue, and dark forest green. After you move the boxes around a few times, you get some interesting combinations.

 

i like purple. Maybe i will try that too

 

I'm always painting tipi poles in the seven colors (Black, Red, Yellow, White, Green, Blue and Purple) and painting my tipi Red and Blue (the white is already there). The leftovers often get used for boxes except for the black. So there are all of those plus the mismatched paints, unpainted, untinted paint and the linseed oil.

I'd probably avoid DARK green and black because of the summer heat and solar gain. But every bright or light color seems to work fine.

 

I am thinking camo personally. Some forest and some desert. Mainly I just like to mess with the guys who help me out with the bees. I could paint the bottom blue and the top grey and say it is for when they fly.

 

I really haven't seen alot of difference in the hives that are dark green and the others. With a little top venting, they all seem about the same to the bees.

 

I like to paint my hives red,white and blue. And some I just take a bunch of partialy filled cans of paint and mix them all together and make a new color. Bees don't care what color their hives are painted.
Dwight

 

What ever light color I find on the discount rack(normally mismatched but some times dented cans). In the store the color of this one can looked yellowish white, in the sun it was a light bright pink. I ended up mixing what was left of that gallon with a medium blue that ended up a light blue. I only ended up with about 5 boxes that were double coat of the original color which were repainted the next year. I got tired of the laughs from the pink hives.

Later, John

 

>oh george you are quite pretty in pink...

Oh you know it Tecumseh. And the hives are pretty too!

 

Loggermike and I get our paint at the same place it seems. I am using the dipping tank now, but here are the colors I have been using.

http://members.cox.net/bullseyebees/_sgt/m1m2_1.htm

 

{It takes are real man, confident in his masculinity, to paint his hives pink:}

Yes because if the other beekeepers see them your lunch money is history!

I use a wide variety of colors too, Pink???

 

Mine are natural with 3-4 coats of poly on them to protect them.

Well, thats a lie! My Daughters help me paint them now and they have flowers and birds and....oh yeah Bees on them before I poly them. It is a great way to include my children in the hobby and they really enjoy helping Dad in the workshop!

 

so far I am leaning toward yellow, purple and... i need a third color...

not sure yet

 

Dr. Tew, my prof at OSU/ATI, used to say that the best color to paint a bee hive was the one that you could get for the least amount of money. He said it better than I, but that's the jist. He told us to go to the paint store or hardware store of our choice and ask for their "Oops" paint. Oops paint is that paint that they got back or had mixed incorrectly. So it commonly sells for $5.00 per can.

When I am in SC, and I find myself with not much to do for a day or two, I will often go to the store, buy some cans of paint, mix 4 of them together in a five gallon pail and paint hives with bees in them. Most of my hives are 6 to a pallet. So I have lots of hives that are freshly painted on one or two sides only.

Mark Berninghausen

 

>i need a third color...

Pink! No Blue! Yellow, Purple, and Blue! No Green!

Pink. Definitely pink. I bet you could do pink.

 

>>My Daughters help me paint them now and they have flowers and birds and....oh yeah Bees on.

Sounds interesting - Any photos?

 

{So I have lots of hives that are freshly painted on one or two sides only.}

I wouldn't be able to sleep at night!

 

maybe pink...we will see. I was thinking red too but not so sure

 

{ was thinking red too but not so sure }

Which would be good so when you clean your copper hive tops with ketchup there'd be no stain if any spilled on the sides!

(hoped I'd forget about that didn't you!)

 

I have red, pink, purple, dark maroon, brown, blue, and yellow, whatever colors of "oops" paint the local hardware store has. The added advantage of multicolored hives, besides the aesthetic value, is that the bees aren't as prone to drifting if you stagger the colors.
My granddaughter thinks that every colorful hive she sees has to be mine.

 

i've gone with coyote brown so as to not draw attention from nosy ne'r do wells. did I tell you i like privacy? haha.

 

seems like a chef should choose colors based on the basic food groups.

personally I like to mix a bit of this and that oops paint so every batch is definitely unique. my current splash is a most interesting mix of pink and dark brown, warm but very earthy.

 

I have stuck with painting mine white to have them look uniform and be more attractive to my neighbors who are interested in things looking "just right" (at least in their minds). If I ever get some "out hives", I will definitely go with cheap paint regardless of color but until then, I will keep up the white...