Bee suit colours

[Rosti]

Dark, large, standing on back legs, carbon dioxide plume coming from mouth, must be a bear after our honey!

You'll not win an argument against millions of years of genetic imprinting!

Prepare to be stung

 

[Skyhook]

Bees aren't meant to like dark colours and I've read that they particularly hate blue, but I don't know if it's inherited wisdom or based on experience. That's really why I asked the question.

You can buy camo bee suits, and you can buy bright red ones ... which seems to fly in the face of reason because we're told that red looks black (no colour) to bees. http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen06/gen06114.htm
QUOTE]
I've wondered that! There's someone at my association who wears a red suit, and doesn't get attacked- but I don't know why not!

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

I've got a white suit and can honestly say I can't remember seeing significant numbers of bees on it.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Dark, large, standing on back legs, carbon dioxide plume coming from mouth, must be a bear after our honey!

You'll not win an argument against millions of years of genetic imprinting!

Prepare to be stung

Handy hint - don't wear a fur coat to go beekeeping and that includes you TDD

 

[BeeMoustashe]

I bought an ebay DPM suit, no significant interest from the bees at all, same level as when wearing my white smock really.

Don't worry btw, I now have a proper BBwear one :rolf:

 

[JamezF]

My microfibre suit is pale green because that's the only colour it came in. I very rarely feel the cold and get unpleasantly hot in a bee suit, so I wanted the lightest possible weight material I could find.

I disagree that bees will see red objects as black. Just because they look red to us doesn't mean they aren't emitting all sorts of other wavelengths that that we can't see and bees can.

As regards denim, perhaps it also reflects light in frequencies we can't see that the bees find attractive? Or perhaps there's some other effect taking place that we're unaware of? For example, if blue dyes contained some chemical that broke down in strong sunlight into various compounds one of which irritated the bees. It needn't even be in the dye. If mordants are still used in dying it could be something to do with those, or some reaction between the dye, the mordant and the cloth.

James

 

[Arfermo]

Always bear black trousers, white jacket and black gloves and never had any problems with the black.

Only problem I have is when the bees try and 'burrow' up my sleeve where the glove meets the jacket.

I had 8 stings in one go when the sleeve rode up and uncovered a gap for the bees to raid but I solved that problem with a ring of duck tape around each wrist tight enough to leave no gap for them to raid. No trouble whatsoever now - and often I don't even bother with smoke either. Kamikaze is the name.

 

[Luminos]

I've got a white suit and can honestly say I can't remember seeing significant numbers of bees on it.

Er, what's that in your Avatar if not a significant number of bees?

 

[Cazza]

Handy hint - don't wear a fur coat to go beekeeping and that includes you TDD

Include fleece jackets in this category too.
Cazza

 

[victor meldrew]

I've got a white suit and can honestly say I can't remember seeing significant numbers of bees on it.

Psssssst!! Don't look behind you!!!
VM

 

[BeeJayBee]

I bought an ebay DPM suit, no significant interest from the bees at all, same level as when wearing my white smock really.

DPM?

 

[chrismcd]

Two other factors to consider.

1) Bees can see UV light and a lot of modern detergents have UV brighteners in them - I suspect that a lot of interest in white suits is caused by their brightness in the UV spectrum. Or to put it another way, a friend who has apparently never washed his white suit seems to attract less bees than the more conscientious of us.

Having said that, I do not think white is a particularly interesting colour to bees.

2) Bees have a great sense of smell. I once made the mistake of not wearing boots when at a demo. Never again, my feet clearly smell of Grizzly bear to the average bee - I got repeatedly stung on both feet right through a thick pair of socks.

I suspect the same effect also applies to cuffs, but to a lesser extent since they probably do not smell to the same extent.

 

[Luminos]

DPM?

Disruptive Pattern Material - (camoflage)

 

[Into the lions den]

I think colour is overestimated as a cause of hostile reactions.

We just use whatever colour the staff like if they are permanents..............my own suits of choice are yellow, Jolka has lilac ones, two of the others have apricot and biscuit brown respectively..........but the standard suit of choice we buy for our seasonals is BBWear olive.

Have had various colours before and have found that darker suits atract more bees to settle on you, but little else.

Type of material is a far greater factor and anything made of wool really sets them off, irrespective of colour, and also anything else kind of hairy. For some reason the fabric on labels and tags often seems to annoy them.

Worst reaction I have seen was to the long hairy cover on the sound mic when doing interviews in the field for tv or radio progs....................we have sometimes had to remove that and leave it in the reporters car......and 20 mins later when you open the boot there are still a few bees trying to sting it..........yet otherwise in the apiary all is calm. Its usually dark grey or black btw..........not seen any other colour used so not reliable to say colour is a factor there.

 

[Skyhook]

1) Bees can see UV light and a lot of modern detergents have UV brighteners in them - I suspect that a lot of interest in white suits is caused by their brightness in the UV spectrum. Or to put it another way, a friend who has apparently never washed his white suit seems to attract less bees than the more conscientious of us.

That's why I wash mine with soda, not detergent.

Bees aren't meant to like dark colours and I've read that they particularly hate blue, but I don't know if it's inherited wisdom or based on experience. That's really why I asked the question.

You can buy camo bee suits, and you can buy bright red ones ... which seems to fly in the face of reason because we're told that red looks black (no colour) to bees. http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen06/gen06114.htm
QUOTE]
I've wondered that! There's someone at my association who wears a red suit, and doesn't get attacked- but I don't know why not!

I've just had another thought about this- if bees can't see red, why do they visit poppies?

.

 

[Into the lions den]

I've just had another thought about this- if bees can't see red, why do they visit poppies?
.

If you view flowers in UV they look very different, many of them almost have a road map to the nectaries to guide the bees in, vividly visible to the bees. We cannot see it but UV photography picks it out. The ground colour WE can see is probably irrelevant when it lies outwith the range of wavelengths that the bees eyes can detect.

My fathers favourite beesuit in hs final years of coming out to 'bother us'/ 'give us the benefit of his expertise' was a Sherriff red one in the lightweight synthetic material. The bees did not show any unusual interest in it.

 

[For want of a better word]

PINK
for girls
[/CENTER]

 

[victor meldrew]

I think colour is overestimated as a cause of hostile reactions.

We just use whatever colour the staff like if they are permanents..............my own suits of choice are yellow, Jolka has lilac ones, two of the others have apricot and biscuit brown respectively..........but the standard suit of choice we buy for our seasonals is BBWear olive.

Have had various colours before and have found that darker suits atract more bees to settle on you, but little else.

Type of material is a far greater factor and anything made of wool really sets them off, irrespective of colour, and also anything else kind of hairy. For some reason the fabric on labels and tags often seems to annoy them.

Worst reaction I have seen was to the long hairy cover on the sound mic when doing interviews in the field for tv or radio progs....................we have sometimes had to remove that and leave it in the reporters car......and 20 mins later when you open the boot there are still a few bees trying to sting it..........yet otherwise in the apiary all is calm. Its usually dark grey or black btw..........not seen any other colour used so not reliable to say colour is a factor there.

Incident occurred in club outapiary involving a smoker the bellows of which were constructed of a brown suede type leather/ leather look alike
It was attacked instantly. It was covered in stings in no time at all. Had to be removed asap.
VM

 

[BeeMoustashe]

only time I've had problems with a suit was in the camoflage one, just washed it. Smelt nicely of detergent- which the bees detested. A calm hive suddenly became very very agressive to the point I had to put my 'big gloves' on to finish up. I smoked the suit to get rid of the detergent smell and wore it again next time, and they were lovely again.

That was the camoflage suit too.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I've just had another thought about this- if bees can't see red, why do they visit poppies?

As ITLD says, there are 'honey guides' or 'pollen guides' on the flowers. We can't see them because they're the wrong spectrum for our eyes/brain.

Daily Mail (some pictures) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...-view-How-insects-flowers-differently-us.html

West Mountain Apiary ("Colors Bees See") http://westmtnapiary.com/Bees_and_color.html

... bees base all their colors on UV, blue , and green. Just as color blind people do not see red or green, and therefore experience the world of color differently, bees also perceive the world in colors entirely different from ours. Bees do not see red and have a hard time distinguishing it from surrounding green leaf backgrounds. Bees that frequent red flowers are either perceive them in color they can see, or the red flower is not being lost against a green background. ...​

Some rather amazing UV pictures of flowers here http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV_flowers_list.html