THE COLOR PURPLE

Guess what are the most likely colors to attract bees? According to scientists, purple, violet and blue. This is probably because a bee's color receptors are ultraviolet, blue and green.

They can also see reddish wavelengths such as yellow and orange, but bees don’t have a red color sensor so they can’t see red light; therefore, what is vivid red to us is unseen by bees!

Add bright white and yellow flowers to a bee’s favorite color list. However, they are less likely to be drawn to light shades of any color, especially pale colors.

To “Bee Sure” which flowers your local bees prefer, ask your local nursery which plants attract the most bees in your climate zone. Most of all, have fun planting beautiful flowers to attract one of nature’s most beneficial insects to your garden!

Photo of bumblebee by Melissa G. Edwards

Fun Facts About Bees

 

A honeybee can fly up to 15 miles per hour.

A pound of honey is made by two million visits to flowers.

A worker bee makes about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.

Bees can see in ultraviolet light.

Bees have five eyes: Two large compound eyes and three small simple eyes called ocelli on top of their heads.

Honeybees have a sense of smell fifty times greater than a dog.

Bees In Winter

 

Unlike other insects in the winter, honeybees don’t hibernate. Instead, they cluster together in a ball, staying awake all winter inside their hive eating honey while “shivering” their flight muscles to keep warm. Native bees' parents don’t survive long enough to overwinter, but the brood cells of larvae metamorphose into adults before winter arrives. The food supply left for them is enough to keep them fed until they hatch as adults in the spring to reproduce again.

Number Four Fact - Bumblebees Aren't Always Yellow And Black!

The No. 4 fact that most people don’t know about bumblebees is that not all of them are just yellow and black. Some bumbles have orange and black stripes, whereas others have white stripes in addition to yellow and black ones. Bumblebees are always fuzzy, so it is easy not to confuse them with carpenter bees that are smooth and shiny. You can see the difference between the two types of bees in the photo above; the shiny black carpenter bee is flying on the right and the fuzzy, striped bumblebee is drinking nectar from a flower on the left.

What's The Buzz? How Bumblebees Pollinate Plants

Bumblebees have a special technique for pollinating flowers.  Number three of one of the ten things that you probably don’t know about bumblebees is that they grab the pollen-producing part of the plant with their jaws while their vibrating wings loosen the trapped pollen. Bumbles are able to perform this task called “buzz pollination” because their wings beat over 130 times per second!

A Talented Illustrator

 I’d like to thank my illustrator, Jonathan Woodward, for his wonderful and whimsical insect illustrations. My book, “Can You See If I’m A Bee?”, couldn’t have won the SF Book Festival award without him. Check out his website to view all of his other captivating illustrations; he also sells books, puzzles, and beautiful calendars at jonathanwoodwardstudio.com.

Book Award

My book, “Can You See If I’m A Bee?”, won the runner-up award for the best children’s picture book in the San Francisco Book Festival Contest. I am honored to win this award, as thousands of authors compete for it. I’m thankful that organizations like this exist as it gives authors the opportunity to get recognition for their hard work. It is nice to know that the judges recognized that bees are endangered and that there needs to be more publicity and education regarding this disturbing fact.