When choosing the colours for my product I need to bare in mind that although colours may be attractive for us, bees see colours differently and this can be used to attract bees to my product and aid then in navigating their nest hole. As can be seen in some of the products below, strips/blocks of colour have been used around the nest holes to help bees differentiate between holes.
But how do bees see colour compared to us? do they have a favourite colour? and how can I used this?
Colour used to help bee's orientations and navigation
Click image for link to site
What I found interesting from this article is that bees can also see very small details, subtle changes in colour tones and patterns which cannot be seen by the human eye. The image below demonstrates the difference between bee and human eyes.
Human /bee colour chart
This is a really handy table I found on-line to refer to when selecting colours for my product.It was fascinating to find out that bees see Ultra violet colours! and can use this when selecting colours for my own product.
Click image for link to site
Plants for attracting bees
Plant research was initially over whelming, as there are a vast amount of plants! and the real struggle was where to start? I thought it would be as simple as typing 'bee friendly plants' into Google.Fortunately I had a little booklet on bees which had a section of common British bee friendly plants! This gave me a good starting point with my research and some plants to investigate. With my product it not just a case of just picking any bee friendly plant, I need to take into consideration flowering times which must coincide with the bees flight times and also how well suited they are to growing in a small container as some root system need a lot of depth to grow properly.
extract from bee booklet
The researching became a for little over whelming again and felt like I had bits and bobs all over the place so I made a little chart below to sort out the potential flowers I could use and if they meet the criteria for my product.
So ... lavender?....
there are many species of lavender which was quite surprises and all had different growth rates, flowering times etc. However I narrowed this down to English lavender as it is the most common and smallest growing species. why would lavender be a good choice?
English Lavender (Latin name Lavandula.angustifolia)
Its a well known plant, although there are many bee friendly flowers some of them were obscure and not commonly known and I want to recommend a plant which can be easily bought from any garden centre or plant shop at a cheap price.
Lavender would be a good choice because it is a hardy plant which is good for beginners and those not very experienced with caring for plants. They are relatively free from pests and diseases and it doesn't require a lot of watering (they also withstand drought very well) and can cope in direct sunlight and partial shade meaning it can adapt to most outside environments. It comes into its flowering season a little later than I want but still covers the majority of the bees pollinating season and is a highly attractive plant for bees. Every site/book I have accessed agrees that it can be grown in containers although they do not all agree on size.
I also spoke to a gardener as I was worried about the plant outgrowing the pot or dying due to lack of space for the roots. I found out that although Lavender can be invasion and can grow rather large however if you are containing it in a area (like my bee box for example) there is nowhere for it to spread to unlike if it was in a flower bed, therefore its growth will be stunted and will only grow to the size of its pot. In the long term (years) this would be a problem and would mean the plant will become weak overtime but I am only requiring it to last for just a year (in fact only one flowering season which is a few months) so it wont be a problem. After it has served its purpose during the bee season it can be transferred into a bigger pot and then take a cutting to put in a new bee box for the following year. It Can also be cut and dried and used in the home (or discarded, however this would be wasteful).
Although the roots are a great mass they require a very tight contained space for the plant to thrive otherwise the roots will rot due to too much moisture left in the soil. This bods well for my product as it is a tight and confined space.
Lavender is also an ever green so will look nice even after it has passed the flowering season.
Or Dead nettle (spotted nettle) ....
Although this not a commonly heard of plant it would be well suited for the bee box as it has a shallow root system which means a small planting area would be fine for it to thrive. It says that dead nettle can be invasive however can be easily contained with regular cutting, although as it is in a small space is not going to grow larger than its pot as mentioned with the lavender.
Its has a much longer flowering time than lavender which lasts for the whole of the bee nesting season. It is a very hardy plant and can grow in pretty much every condition making it a good choice to recommend and an easy plant for beginners. It grow similar to ivy and would look nice hanging down from the bee box or climbing up a fence or wall. Despite having 'nettle' in its name this plant doesn't sting when touched and is highly attractive to bees.