This is a question for cold-climate beekeepers. By cold-climate, I'll use myself as an example. I'm a backyard beekeeper on the eastern most edge of the island of Newfoundland which is in the middle of the cold North Atlantic Ocean. I can see one of the coldest ocean currents in the world, the Labrador Current, from my house. A third of my bees' forage area is the North Atlantic Ocean. The average daily temperature this year has been less 15°C / 59°F, but usually even less, and the forecast isn't looking much better. My colonies are about two months behind in development. They're virtually in suspended animated. I've never had to deal with anything quite like this before.
In the 9 years I've been keeping bees, I've never had to keep my hives in full sunlight. They're in and out of the shade throughout the day but usually get between 5 and 8 hours of direct sunlight a day (when we're not covered by fog and drizzle). This is the first year that not having them in direct sunlight all day might be holding them back. I'm so desperate to give them a boost that I'm almost tempted to paint some of my hives BLACK so that what little sun they do get has a greater effect of heating up the hives.
Is this absolute crazy talk? Has anyone ever painted their hives BLACK in the summer?
I already paint my hives a dark green like most people in Newfoundland, but I'm wondering, would black cook them alive? Probably. But maybe not.
