# Lavender from a bees perspective



## K Wieland (Sep 15, 2011)

Hi all,

Ran across this and thought it was interesting. (2013, so you may have already read it)

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.12178/full

It is an interesting study to me for a couple of reasons. 1. I like their methods. Conducting the same study for two years and in two locations should really control for a lot of variations. 2. They point out that varieties can have a big effect, like in lavender.

I am wondering what your thoughts are on this paper. Did they do the research right? Did they overlook something important?

Enjoy!


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

The flower plots are rather small. This would be a good way to test what bumbles and non-eusocial pollinators like, but way to small to be a convincing test on honey bees.

For honeys, you would need sufficient quantities to not just interest a few bees, but to trigger recruiting. If anything in a 3 mile radius is more attractive to them, they'll skip the test plot and be gone. The only way I've seen to really tell where they are going involves radar antennae on their backs. And a flower attractive to bees in one area may not interest them in another due to one bee finding something better and "spreading the word" to 20,000 of her closest friends. To do this right, you'd need 4-10 acre plots spread out over about 16,000 acres.

That said, ours rarely turn down small patches of lavender. At least a few honeys will work it.


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