I’m thinking about decorating our hive before we get bees. I like the look of the cedar grain, so I’m not going to paint. I am thinking about doing a wood burned design. Are there any pros and cons that I need to know about? Would the smell of burned wood repel bees?
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If you don’t burn the inside of the hive, I can’t see that it would be a problem.
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I’ve seen bees that moved into a burned out tree that got struck by lightning. The bees didn’t mind charred wood.
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If you scorch the inside of a hive & put bees in there, they’ll most likely abscond, that’s what I found. However if you transfer an established colony, brood & all into a scorched hive, the bees will stay. It wont take long for the hives odor to overwhelm the scorched smell.
There’s scorching and scorching I suppose. I scorch the inside of my wooden boxes when I clean them and the bees don’t seem to mind. Scorching to blacken the wood is probably left to the outside. It might look very nice.
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I’m thinking about a Mehndi type pattern and some words - not too much. Sounds like it should be OK.
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Sounds gorgeous! Hope you can post some photos when it is done. 
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Not yet. I am ready to order bees now, so will do my decorating soon!
Thanks for asking!
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Wow, I love it! You could sell skills like that. I would certainly pay to have you decorate my hive if you lived nearby.
Clever…
That’s wonderful