Dale, don’t know where you are located, but there are some people who do paint the BB house white – however, I do believe the birds prefer natural wood color. Then, in the heat of the summer you can put on a heat shield to keep it cooler, and I personally believe this shield, when done properly, would keep it slightly cooler than a box painted white, but I’m not sure. My heat shields are made of Styrofoam with spacers between the box & the foam, which is absolutely necessary! There was someone on this site who did studies on the difference temps between a dark house & white one. When my cedar houses aged too dark (after about 4/5 years) I put them in a 5 gallon pail of bleach water (maybe 1/2 cup of bleach in the 5 gallon water) for about 15-20 minutes and they came out looking like new. Of course, I did this after nesting season and rinsed them out very well before putting back up.
