Thread Drift

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Cool, are they always painted white?

No, they can be painted just about any color....except I do know that bees don't like black or royal blue.
Hives are often painted white because A)If they are sold pre-painted, white is a 'safe', cheap, generic choice....and B) many large commercial apiaries keep their hives out in the fields in full sun and white helps the bees cool their hive in the South in the summer, where they are often placed during the pollinating season of crops.
My hives will be in dappled sun in the northeast here, so they can really be any colors and don't need to be white at all. I actually picked out 3 pretty colors to mix-n-match in the two stacks of hive boxes.