Painting hives should meet several requirements: Protection of the wood, temperature control, ascetically not displeasing, easy to paint, and provide landmarks for bees to prevent drifting. Several of these are pretty easy and well known, outdoor latex paint, only paint the insides, light colors (particularly down here in the south). Ascetically not displeasing is really up to personal taste, I have hves painted by a four year old that are "cute" because a 4 year old did them, they style would be described in the art worl as "abstract". Easy to paint usually means bare white or other solid color.
Research shows bees can distinguish shapes and colors. So simple shapes and bee distinguishable colors.
Charges
| Bend | 
| Bend Sinister |  |
| Chevron | 
| Chevron Inverted |  |
| Pall | 
| Pall Inverted |  |
| Cross | 
| Saltaire |  |
| Fess | 
| Pale |  |
| Pile | 
| Pile Inverted |  |
| Lozenge | 
| Billet |  |
| Roundel | 
| Annulet |  |
|
| Wavelength | Human Color | Human Receptors | Bee Color | Bee Receptors |
| <300 | Ultraviolet (Invisible) | | | Ultraviolet (Invisible) | | |
| 300-380 | | Bee Ultraviolet | ? | 350 |
| 380-450 | Violet
#8f00ff screen,#9400d3 pigment | | S: 430 | Bee Blue
#3d00ff | | 440 |
| 450-480 | Blue
#0000ff | | | |
| 480-500 | | Bee Blue-Green
#00ffff | | |
| 500-520 | Blue-Green
#00ffff screen,#00b7eb pigment | | | Bee Yellow
#a3ff00 | | |
| 520-550 | Green
#00ff00 | | M: 544 | 540 |
| 550-570 | Yellow-Green
#ceff00 | | L: 570 | |
| 570-600 | Yellow
#ffff00 | | | |
| 600-630 | Orange
#ff8800 | | | Infrayellow (Invisible) | | |
| 630-780 | Red
#ff0000 | | | |
| >780 | Infrared (Invisible) | | | |
|
Bees, Biology and Management by Peter G. Kevan show some patterns that bees can discriminate between and shapes recognized by bees. They include circle, square, triangle, diamond, bar at an angle, 3 vertical bars, kind of a "Y" and an X. The article on this book finishes with the following:
Read this book with this caveat: If you are not already a bee geek when you start, you will be one when you finish. Don't say you weren't warned. It is a treasure of a book.
December American Bee Journal 2007
Square, Diamond, Circle, Triangle, inverted triangle
Can distinguish ring from disk: http://www.pnas.org/content/92/7/3029.full.pdf
Yellow, Blue-green, blue, ultraviolet, black, White
The major difference between the color sense of a bee and a human is that the .human eye can distinguish about sixty distinct colors in the visible spectrum, while the bee can distinguish only four different colors in the visible spectrum: yellow, blue-green, blue, and ultraviolet