I wanted to like how it tastes, but it definitely can’t compete with a plate of fresh pasta with pesto or a bowl of vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries. Have you ever eaten pollen before? I admit I have - as an additive in my smoothies years ago. Tasteīees use their proboscis to slurp up nectar Bees know they need variety in their diet and they will seek out a variety of flowers. Bees will also do more vigorous waggle dances for their fellow worker bees if there is a source of forage nearby with a wide variety of blooms. In fact, if they don’t see flowers they want to visit, they will travel further to find them. Put all of this together, and you have bees that seek out the colors of flowers most recognizable to them. Additionally, they can see iridescence, which means they can notice variations in colors based on the angle of the petals. They have a higher flicker threshold, which means they can distinguish colors even when flying past them at high speeds. First of all, they see color much faster than we do. These are colors they can easily see.īees have other special skills when it comes to seeing the flower colors. Bees cannot see red, which is why you may have heard they are most attracted to blue, purple, yellow, and white flowers.

This color is not visible to the human eye.

In fact, they even see what’s called “bee purple”, which is a mixture of yellow and ultraviolet. They are trichromatic, just like us, however, the three base colors they see are ultraviolet, blue, and green. Bees See Ultraviolet Lightīees don’t see as many colors as we do, but they see a wider range within the colors they do see. Let’s back up and briefly discuss how bees’ eyes work. Looking at the native flora in your area, it’s important to note bees seek out flowers depending on colors that are most noticeable to them. The plants we see outside are a function of our overall climate and growing conditions. Vegetation develops depending on the climate, the soil pH, moisture levels, soil drainage, and winter maximum and minimum temperatures. In fact, you can notice the color differences both on the pollen baskets of honey bees and in the bee bread inside the hive. Pollen can range from blue to yellow to red to green and everything in-between. Take a moment to look at the pollen-laden plants in your neighborhood and you will see they contain a wide variety of pollen colors. Colorīees prefer purple, blue, yellow, and white flowers Through my research, I found out there are many different ways honey bees decide which flowers to visit, including color, taste, patterns, popularity, and even electrical fields. They bring pollen back to the hive to be repurposed into bee bread for developing larvae. Though bees gather the pollen on their legs or even on the hairs on their abdomen (I’m looking at you, mason bees ), the adult bees don’t consume it. When I learned this, I started to wonder how bees decide what flowers to visit and if they have taste preferences when it comes to pollen. In fact, flowers evolved alongside bees to be more colorful and to be richer sources of pollen. We aren’t 100% sure how the evolution happened, but at some point, a wasp had a run-in with some pollen, began to consume it, and *poof* now we have honey bees who have a mutually beneficial relationship with flowers. *Gasp* I know, I was a bit conflicted as well when I learned that fun fact.

Nectar flower hive