Another winter and new beekeepers in Bee School 2019... Here are some things worth mentioning with a link to a past article or two...
Slatted racks were designed with great insights into northern honey bee behaviors. The book we are using for bee school this season reveals some confusion about what Slatted Racks are most useful for:
- Giving the girls a place to hang out in increment spring cold & rain instead of crowding up into the brood box.
- Buffering the brood box from any forager traffic as well as air breezing up through the screened bottom board.
Painting a beehive is fairly straight forward:
How To Paint:
- ONLY THE OUTSIDE OF THE HIVE!
- ONLY THE PARTS THAT DON'T TOUCH!
- That's basically it.
The hive parts that touch each other must be paint free. Paint only the outside surfaces for weather proofing the wood. The bees will propolis the insides. The landing board may be completely painted as it does not touch the bees nor need to be removed during an inspection.
Read more detail at this link.
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What to use: Exterior Paint, Latex. The photos above are with a weatherproofing stain, VOC less than 100. Drying time well over a few weeks before installing bees.
In our northern climate I make sure I can use it in cold weather.
- Bees see only in the ultra violet range.
we see
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bees see
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add in UV
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red
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black
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uv purple
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orange
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yellow/green*
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yellow
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yellow/green*
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uv purple
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green
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green
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blue
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blue
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uv violet
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violet
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blue
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uv blue
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purple
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blue
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white
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blue green
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black
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black
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What does this mean? Colors look different and they are attracted to our Purple, Violet, then Blue in that order. Red doesn't work for them. White looks bluish-green to them.
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