The flowers of pumpkins, winter squash, melons and gourds attract numerous bees, large and small, because the flowers are easy to access and the plants bloom at a time of year when pollen is in short supply.
Bees feed on nectar and pollen collected by foragers — older worker bees with beefy flight muscles. Some foragers gather nectar, which they store in an elastic pouch in the gut known as a “honey stomach”; others collect pollen grains, packing them in “baskets” on their rear legs.
Include flowers within your fruit and vegetable plot – either at the margins, at the ends of beds or among crops as companion plants. Remember that flowering vegetables such as beans will also attract bees.
Bees are also attracted to many food plants. The great thing about planting some citrus, strawberries or a passionfruit vine is the symbiotic benefit. The bees get their pollen and nectar, and the plants produce bigger, healthier, better formed fruit in greater abundance.
They need to be prepared so they have a high demand for nectar because bees are mostly visiting carrot flowers for a nectar reward.
Many types of trees including plums, apples, crabapples, peaches, and pears are good food sources for bees. Varieties come in fruiting and fruitless types. Many fruiting varieties need bees to produce fruit. Most of these will flower in the spring.
Cucumber flowers are not very attractive to native bees, so honey bees are the most important pollinator in commercial pickling cucumber fields, accounting for 98% of bee visits to cucumber flowers. Honey bees visit flowers for two reasons: pollen for protein, and nectar for carbohydrates.
Native bees drink nectar from flowering plants. Because of this, bees can sometimes be attracted to sweet, sugary foods and drinks. If you've ever attended an outdoor gathering during warm months, chances are, you've probably seen honeybees and bumblebees buzzing around unattended fruit and opened soft drinks.
Nectar and pollen from flowers are the honey bee's natural food.
Bees love traditional cottage garden flowers and native wildflowers, like primrose, buddleia, and marigolds. If you have space, leave a section of the garden untended – as some bees love long grass, or making nests in compost heaps or under hedgerows. Bees love large drifts of the same flowers.
Attract bees to your garden
Tip: The most bee-friendly coloured flowers are yellow, blue and purple. “Perennial flowers such as lavender, salvia and rosemary also attract insects – which are pollinators as well as a valuable part of the food chain for other creatures such as frogs, birds and reptiles,” says Katy.
Some excellent plants to attract butterflies include bottlebrush, daisies, grevillea, lavender, and wattle. You can also entice them to lay eggs in plants such as crepe myrtle, snapdragons, and native violets.
The short answer is yes. Honey bees, especially in a nectar dearth, find ripe fruit very much to their liking. They have been known to feast on plums, peaches, grapes, apples, figs, and pears.
Scientists have found that honey bees are especially sensitive to the taste of sweet things (sugars) and salty tastes. Honey bees stick their tongues out when offered something potentially appetizing!
Honey Bee's favorite type of treat are Pineapples. Honey Bee likes the Pumpkin Patch and the Mountain Top Field.
First and foremost, we have to take into consideration that all bees like sugar. While a simple bee trap with sugar water may be a guaranteed way to catch a few more carpenter bees this year, you might also attract a host of other potent pollinators, like honeybees and bumblebees.
Beekeepers use smoke to keep bees calm during hive inspections. When bees sense danger, they release an alarm pheromone called isopentyl acetate from a gland near their stingers. This chemical wafts through the air and alerts other bees to be ready to attack.
Use honey or sugar water as bait.
Pour honey or sugar water directly into the bottom of the trap. You don't need much; a thin layer will be enough to attract bees.
Add plants in the mint family, including peppermint, lavender, basil, and oregano. Bees also like rosemary, sage, thyme, chamomile, marjoram, and bee balm. The heady perfume of these and other herbs often calls bees to visit your garden.
Use a few inches of sugar water, water with jam, soda, fruit juice or another sweet liquid in the summer and fall months. Adding honey will attract honeybees, so it's important not to use this as a sweet bait. Add a bit of vinegar to the mix to keep bees out of your trap.
Their importance as pollinators has not been measured. The timing of honey bee introduction is important because avocado flowers are not highly attractive to honey bees. Hives should be placed in the orchard when flowering is at 5–10 per cent. This will encourage honey bees to exhibit fidelity to the avocado bloom.
Bees are primary pollinators for squash in home gardens; if you have a low or nonexistent bee population, you may have minimal yield with squash. Encourage bees by planting borage, nasturtium, rosemary, oregano, and other bee-attracting herbs and plants.
Some bees eat coffee when they get desperate.
We usually think that bees are always gleefully buzzing flower to flower, happy as ducks in water. But when food is scarce, anything goes. When my niece, Monica King, sent a picture of one of her honey bees collecting coffee grounds in lieu of pollen, I was impressed.