Are bee's attracted to certain colours?

[KikiDee]

Odd question but maybe somebody will know!

I have 2 large water tubs in the field - one is blue and one is yellow. Last summer I spent a lot of time fishing out poor drowning bee's from my water buckets and finding the odd dead one

Yesterday we had quite a mild day and I found my first bee swimming round stuck in my water tub. But it always seems to be my yellow tub I find them in! I'm thinking of swapping it out for a different colour as it really makes me so sad, I have tried various things like offering a shallow water source next to the tubs or dangling a stick in it to make a 'bee ladder' but they still seem to go for the yellow tub.

Does anyone know if bee's are attracted to certain colours and if so, the best colour to replace it with to put them off going for a swim? anything else I can do to stop them diving into my water buckets?

 

[AmyMay Again]

They definitely are.

I'm sure there was a post about this last summer.

 

[Dopeydapple]

Yep I'm sure I've read a post about it too, think it was red v blue buckets but I can't remember which one they stayed away from.

 

[KikiDee]

Thank you I have searched and tried googling but everything tells me they like blue! and the ratio of bee's in my yellow to blue bucket is definitely much higher. I may try red.

 

[AmyMay Again]

Thank you I have searched and tried googling but everything tells me they like blue! and the ratio of bee's in my yellow to blue bucket is definitely much higher. I may try red.

I'd go for black personally.

 

[AmyMay Again]

Found it

Post in thread 'Bees and waterbuckets'

6 July 2025

Blue attracts the bees i changed my buckets as they were full of bees last summer. Also my poop scoop is blue and if there is water in the bottom the bees end up drowning in it

• Barton Bounty

• 

 

[KikiDee]

How odd as they seem to steer well clear of my blue bucket and they are literally next to each other!

 

[sbloom]

And there are way fewer actual blue flowers than white, yellow, red etc so it doesn't make a lot of evolutionary sense for them to...ahem...make a beeline for blue...

 

[2 Dragons]

I had this problem last summer, I kept finding bees in my blue hay soaking bucket. I made the a nice little bee pond next to the bucket- I put in an escape weighted bit of baler string- but the bees ignored these. I then always covered the bucket up with a rubber matting offcut unless the hay was actually soaking, which worked. My bees ignored the yellow tub- the bitey little black flies liked that one.

 

[Smitty]

Many many years ago, one lovely summer evening, a friend and I were sitting outside a pub. She was wearing a lightish yellow top and got absolutely covered in insects. I think they were aphids. It was hilarious, well for me at any rate

 

[I'm Dun]

yes they are. I'd guess your yellow bucket is brighter than the blue. I'd swap them out for black

https://www.reddit.com/r/IsItBullshit/comments/ct81am/isitbullshit_bees_wasps_are_attracted_to_the

 

[I'm Dun]

and a more formal research style link!

Understanding How Colors Attract Wild Bees Aids Conservation Efforts

Trapping wild bees is essential to studying them. The effectiveness of traps to monitor wild bees varies depending on species and the environment in which they are used. Arkansas researchers tested which colors — yellow, red or blue — worked best to attract bees to vane traps.

aaes.uada.edu

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

I had a blue and and a yellow bucket, the blue one always had more bees.

 

[sbloom]

and a more formal research style link!

Understanding How Colors Attract Wild Bees Aids Conservation Efforts

Trapping wild bees is essential to studying them. The effectiveness of traps to monitor wild bees varies depending on species and the environment in which they are used. Arkansas researchers tested which colors — yellow, red or blue — worked best to attract bees to vane traps.

aaes.uada.edu

It does seem weird that they're predisposed to a fairly rare flower colour...perhaps blue flowers have more nectar?

 

[KikiDee]

I had a blue and and a yellow bucket, the blue one always had more bees.

So odd I have the exact opposite! But reading all these comments now I worry if I swap the yellow one for another colour they’ll swarm to the blue one!

 

[PurBee]

Bees find my lavender flowers in my polytunnel easily enough! I can’t believe how many are in there when they’re flowering. Never saw so many bees until having lavender plants!
They also go for this gorgeous meadow flower….can’t remember the name right now, but it’s a violet/bluey colour too like lavender, so my experience is they prefer blues to yellows, as we have lots of wild yellow flowers.
It’s funny they prefer your yellow bucket to the blue! Maybe they head to the blue bucket and get dazzled by the yellow one and fall in

 

[Trouper]

I think there is a seasonal element to this, too. This time of year anything with a likely food source tends to be yellow (except for my winter heathers which I planted especially for the early bees). Later in the year the things they love - delphiniums, aconites, lavender etc tend to be blue.

 

[I'm Dun]

It does seem weird that they're predisposed to a fairly rare flower colour...perhaps blue flowers have more nectar?

Its the brightness of the colour rather than the actual colour, which makes more sense as they are always scanning for flowers, which tend to be bright.

 

[Sussexbythesea]

Thank you I have searched and tried googling but everything tells me they like blue! and the ratio of bee's in my yellow to blue bucket is definitely much higher. I may try red.

The bees were always drowning in my bright sky blue water bucket. Much less so in my green and red ones.

 

[sbloom]

Its the brightness of the colour rather than the actual colour, which makes more sense as they are always scanning for flowers, which tend to be bright.

Still don't get it, but it matters not! White has to surely be the brightest colour...though of course their eyes may work differently, but that still doesn't change why evolution has them most attracted to the rarest colour.

 

[HJJ]

I've got two mid-green water tubs and rarely find bees in them. Wasps and ladybirds on the other hand...

 

[D66]

Bees will use the water source closest/most convenient to their hive at the beginning of the year and then carry on using that same water source all year. It’s likely that your trugs are available in feb and March when the bee colony is building up and they want to keep using it all season. Try moving it further away in these months and replacing it with a tray of stones that you keep water filled so they can drink safely. And the horses can use their trug bee-free.

Interesting fact.
Bees born in the summer live for around 6 weeks and winter bees live for a few months through the winter.

 

[KikiDee]

Bees will use the water source closest/most convenient to their hive at the beginning of the year and then carry on using that same water source all year. It’s likely that your trugs are available in feb and March when the bee colony is building up and they want to keep using it all season. Try moving it further away in these months and replacing it with a tray of stones that you keep water filled so they can drink safely. And the horses can use their trug bee-free.

Interesting fact.
Bees born in the summer live for around 6 weeks and winter bees live for a few months through the winter.

I actually move them to a totally different field at the end of March and the tubs go with them and still have the same problem

I seem to have very determined bee's! Last year I put a variety of shallow water sources next to the tubs and dotted around the yard and they still made a beeline (sorry for the pun) for my yellow water tub

I think I will try swapping them both out for black and see if that helps, as I'm worried if I just get rid of my yellow one they will switch to my blue!