# Can bees recognize Green?



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Yes. They can see from Ultra-Violet down to Orange. So their visible spectrum is:

Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Indigo
Violet
Ultra Violet


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Thanks Micheal! 
are they able to recognize differing shades of blue, blue green, yellowish green and yellow?


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

Should be able to Ian, they fall within their visible spectrum. I think the pattern is more important than the color, for the paint on the box and the pattern the nucs are laid out in. Landmarks also help with the orientation.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

They can distinguish what they can see. Colors like red they can't distinguish because it looks just like black (no color). As far as getting their attention, they seem to have a preference for the blue end of the spectrum and green has some blue in it...


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

Michael Bush said:


> They can distinguish what they can see. Colors like red they can't distinguish because it looks just like black (no color). As far as getting their attention, they seem to have a preference for the blue end of the spectrum and green has some blue in it...


Michael - If they see red as black, wouldn't they be able to use it as well as a marker? I've got some mating nuc entrance disks painted red and they seem to do fine with them is why i ask.


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

The visible interpretation of red is dependent on the source. Red lights used on a forklift for moving bees at night produces very little visible wavelengths of light, although a little is present because there are some impurities in the "red" bulbs. Red on flowers or boxes is distinguishable to bees, it simply is not viewed as we see it, but does play into the visible pattern of the object.


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

JSL said:


> The visible interpretation of red is dependent on the source. Red lights used on a forklift for moving bees at night produces very little visible wavelengths of light, although a little is present because there are some impurities in the "red" bulbs. Red on flowers or boxes is distinguishable to bees, it simply is not viewed as we see it, but does play into the visible pattern of the object.


Ok, So what about white? Is it a normal color they can distinguish without problems? For instance an entrance disk that's painted white on a grey or green box?


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

Sure, why do you think beekeepers paint their boxes white?  They can see that portion of the spectrum, but it may not appear the same as we see white.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Michael - If they see red as black, wouldn't they be able to use it as well as a marker? I've got some mating nuc entrance disks painted red and they seem to do fine with them is why i ask.

They can't distinguish true red from black, but they can certainly distinguish it from white or other colors. Yes they can use it as a marker as long as you are not expecting them to distinguish it from black.

>The visible interpretation of red is dependent on the source. 

I know from safelights and from buying paint that "red" is a pretty broad color...


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

All the literature I read on the visible colour spectrum the bees see, every piece talks about blue, blue/green, violet, yellow, and ultraviolet/yellow. Is this because these are the only colours the bees can differentiate? 
It would be interesting to see what ultraviolet/yellow looks like


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## Agis Apiaries (Jul 22, 2014)

Sometimes people ask what happens if you paint your hives red. We have some red hives, and those colonies do just fine. Our strongest colony is in a red hive.


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

Ian said:


> All the literature I read on the visible colour spectrum the bees see, every piece talks about blue, blue/green, violet, yellow, and ultraviolet/yellow. Is this because these are the only colours the bees can differentiate?


Probably not, but they are some of the more salient colors for honey bees. They may not be able to see them as we do, but still create part of the image. I wouldn't worry too much about the colors on your nucs. As I wrote earlier the pattern is more influential. Years ago I was visiting a large queen operation in California and was out installing cells. There were thousands of little white mini nucs arranged in circles around the yard. No color on the boxes, just arranged in small clusters. Bees are smarter and more observant than many of their caretakers.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Other than the color they will do their orientation flight too. So can you
number the hives with the different color pattern?


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## dsegrest (May 15, 2014)

JSL said:


> Sure, why do you think beekeepers paint their boxes white?  They can see that portion of the spectrum, but it may not appear the same as we see white.


Beekeepers originally used white because it was cheap.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

>> So can you number the hives ...

Sure - just don't use 'numbers' higher than _four_. :lookout:



> Number-Based Visual Generalisation in the Honeybee​
> Using a y-maze, we found that bees can not only differentiate between patterns containing two and three elements, but can also use this prior knowledge to differentiate three from four, without any additional training.
> 
> _Read the study for free here:
> _http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0004263




... a whole new meaning to "_bee school_" ...


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

Graham, that one made me chuckle. I am sitting here thinking what does he mean, bees only have two tarsal claws on each foot, so if they use two feet they can easily count to 4... Then I realized your humor was a little more sophisticated than mine.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

I'm not so sure about 'sophisticated' _ever _being used in reference to me. 

The joke I was thinking of was the 'bee school' that prospective beekeepers often attend. 

And for those that didn't click the link and read more from that paper, here is the rest of the abstract ...


> However, bees trained on the two versus three task could not distinguish between higher numbers, such as four versus five, four versus six, or five versus six. Control experiments confirmed that the bees were not using cues such as the colour of the exact configuration of the visual elements, the combined area or edge length of the elements, or illusory contours formed by the elements.


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## smoore (Feb 1, 2012)

According to this they should be able to distinguish anything we call green from red/black, white and blue. The probably can't distinguish green from yellow. What we perceive as green (550-500) mu falls within the bees bee-yellow range (650-500 mu). Of course if your paint is also reflects in the ultraviolet the whole hive might be some shade of bee-purple (involving a combination of the left and right ends of the spectrum) to a bee that we cant see. Two identical green hives to us might be separately bee-yellow and bee-purple to a bee depending on ultraviolet light.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Thanks smoore, that is a good link. Just because that colour falls within our spectrum of light doesn't mean the bees are picking up the same colour. From smoore's link; 
"human eye can distinguish about sixty distinct colors in the visible spectrum, while the bee can distinguish only four different colors in the visible spectrum: yellow, blue-green, blue, and ultraviolet "

Not trying to be a smarter caretaker than the bees, just a caretaker trying to understand the bees better


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Similar information from a different perspective*:
http://westmtnapiary.com/Bees_and_color.html


*The statement at the sewanee.edu page linked in post #19 that "drones are stupid and lazy" got my attention and prompted me to look for another reference.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

From the previous link;
"If deprived of UV light, bees loose interest in foraging, and remain in the hive until forced out by severe food shortages"

There is something I did not know. Very interesting.

"Showing our purple followed by our violet and then our blue as their favourites"


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Ian, why don't you just put on all green and go kick some hives.... if the bees find you then you know the answer!


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I think a human can distinguish very small nuances, but it's hard to say how small because it depends on the context. When you put a red right next to almost the same color of red, you can tell that they are slightly different, but if they were on opposite sides of the room you probably could not. How we perceive them differs from person to person. I don't think you can really say that a bees sees green as yellow. I see turquoise as blue and other people see it as green. But that's mostly because we have defined green clearly enough and blue clearly enough, and agreed on it, but turquoise is in between. I doubt that everyone sees blue or green the same, but we have agreed on what to call it anyway. Try looking at a solid block of any color with your arm down the middle between your eyes and you can see a difference from one side to the other (sometimes more or less depending on the color you are looking at). So if you see a color differently from one eye to the other, how much difference might there be between one person and another? I think it's obvious from how some people just love a particular color that they don't necessarily perceive that color the same as other people see it. In this case the issue is whether or not they can distinguish it from other colors.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Michael, that's a vsauce (youtub channel) episode! lol


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