Color, Fragrance, and Flavor: Measuring Their Influence on the Behavior of Worker Bees

Overview

Objectives/Goals Our objective was to isolate which element of a flower a worker bee is most attracted to: color, fragrance or flavor. Methods/Materials Twenty-two 5-inch rounds of paper were placed on skewers in order to resemble flowers. They were placed in a semicircle approximately 6 feet from the bee hive. Nine of the #flowers# were of various colors but had neither taste nor fragrance. Nine of the #flowers# were white but had various essential oils applied. The remaining four were white with the four basic flavors applied. We observed and documented the bee activity directed at our experiment. Each experiment was conducted for one hour. The experiment was repeated three times. Results On average, of the bees that were drawn to our experiment, 10 percent went to color, 52 percent went to fragrance, and 38 percent to flavor. Conclusions/Discussion The data from our experiment indicated that worker bees are most attracted to fragrance. However, due to variable weather there was little activity from the hive in two out of three experiments. Because of this, we feel more experiments are needed to verify our conclusion.

Competition history

• CSEF 2005 Zoology · Entry J1910

Resources

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