Learning colours and scents
Due to the ever-changing sources of food available for bees on a seasonal basis, bees have displayed the ability to remember food sources by their colours and scents. Luntz (2004) describes the process in which bees can be triggered to return to a specific location when prompted with a particular odour. Rose and lemon scented feeders were placed 50m apart and within 50 metres of a beehive, after a few days the feeders were replaced with unscented feeders. Upon fanning of a rose scent over the hive, 70% of bees returned to the location of the previous rose scented feeder (Luntz 2004). Bees can also note and associate specific colours of a flower to a scent, this is helpful during foraging (Reinhard et al. 2004).
Cover Photo- Photo by Rene Mensen ©.