Does hive body paint make any difference, see pic,

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

The bearded deep hive body on the bottom deep is common outdoor paint.  The second deep, green, is an acrylic mold and mildew resistant paint.  Picture taken July 2018.  The green hive body, second deep, was painted the previous February.


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The bees sure drew a line on the mold resistant paint.  Any ideas why?

[Dallasbeek]

No clue, but that's pretty amazing.  Since bees have a sense of smell that would apparently put a bloodhoud to shame, the answer may lie there.

[paus]

One way to make paint mold resistant is to put on table spoon of bleach in a gallon of water base paint.  I bet the bees can smell it.

[Bush_84]

One way to make paint mold resistant is to put on table spoon of bleach in a gallon of water base paint.  I bet the bees can smell it.

Bleach doesn?t keep bees away from sugar syrup.

[Hops Brewster]

they probably found the anti-mildew chemicals to be disagreeable.
Sort of like me when I'm in a room with burning scented candles  barf

[Beeboy01]

I just took a look at my hives and one is doing the same thing. Bearding on the front which stops at the next box. Nothing freshly painted on the hive so guess they just decided to stop at the seam. Maybe one paint is a flat finish and the other a satin or glossy. IDK

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Hops, sort of off subject, but does a vanilla scented candle disagree with you, or all scented candles??  Agreed some are noxious, but not vanilla, to me anyway.

[BeeMaster2]

Van,
I think they put zinc particles in paint to retard mold. That might cause the bees to avoid it. Down here, mold grows on old roofs. Where there are galvanized metal vents, you will see a clear area below the vents due to the zinc wearing off.
Jim

[Ben Framed]

Van, what about the inside situation? When you look inside are the bees crawling on the inside walls of the green box?

[Acebird]

Van there is a couple of ways to look at this.  Is it the repulsion of the green deep or the attraction of the one below it?  Even though most flowers produce nectar the bees may choose one over the other.  If you put ice cream in a blue bowl and broccoli in a white bowl most likely the favored colored bowl would be blue but not because it is blue.

I don't like burning candles, scented or not.  Church candles (made from bees wax) is about all I can handle.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Van, what about the inside situation? When you look inside are the bees crawling on the inside walls of the green box?

Mr. Ben, bees are all over the inside, no difference, lots of bees, everywhere.  This is a strong crowded hive.  I did place a vent in this hive {2nd green box, back of box}to see if airflow reduced bearding.  The vent made no difference on bearding.

[Hops Brewster]

Hops, sort of off subject, but does a vanilla scented candle disagree with you, or all scented candles??  Agreed some are noxious, but not vanilla, to me anyway.

Any candle with artificial scents,..  Far too heavily scented and when they are burning it's very overpowering.  especially in a closed room.  My eyes burn, nose itches,  I start coughing. .. I've ended promising dates over that...  3 or 4 wicks to burn that stuff?!?  GAG!!!

The few remaining naturally scented candles can be pleasant.  Maybe a smidgen of pine oil or  lilac oil.
Nothing like the scent of natural, fresh beeswax candles, though.