Bee Senses

Bees in the D Junior Presents:

Buzz Worthy Activities Bee Senses

How Do Bees See? Bees have two different kinds of eyes with separate functions.

• 2 compound eyes – These eyes have thousands of lenses which allow the bees to focus on images, detect movement, and determine the distance of objects.

• 3 simple eyes – These eyes known as Ocelli aid with sun orientation which helps the bees with navigation.

Bees’ unique eyes and eyesight helps them see colors and find food sources differently than humans.

Watch this video – the first image of every flower is how humans see it, the second how butterflies see it, and the third how bees see it.

How Do Bees Smell?

• Bees use their antennae to smell.

• Bees have 170 odor receptors that are 100 times more sensitive than humans.

• Bees use their sense of smell to locate pollen rich flowers.

• Bees use their sense of smell to recognize other bees.

• Bees produce smells called pheromones to communicate with each other.

How Do Bees Hear/Touch?

• Bees don’t have ears.

• Bees don’t hear but rather feel.

• Bees feel vibrations through their antennae, legs, and hair.

• Bees use this sense of touch to measure for hive construction.

• Bees also use this sense of touch to communicate with their waggle dance.

How Do Bees Taste? • Bees use their proboscis (tongue like mouthpiece) to taste. • The proboscis tastes sweet, salty, bitter, and sour much like a human. • Bees are more sensitive to salts but less sensitive to bitter flavors.

Smell Like A Bee Activity: Without bees doing their pollinating work, a large portion of our fruit, nut, and vegetable supply could disappear completely. Pollination helps plants make seeds which become baby plants. Bees’ sense of smell helps them to spread pollen from plant to plant. Fun fact: A honeybee has a sniffer 100 times more powerful than a human’s and can help it locate scents miles away.

Materials: cups/bowls to put the smelly things in, plastic wrap, sharp pencil, a blindfold/bandana, smelly things: for example oranges, cinnamon, mints, pickles, lemon juice, garlic etc.

Directions: 1). Line up a series of containers at the end of your kitchen table, one container for every smelly item you plan on using.

2 Place a smelly sample in each container. Cover them tightly with plastic wrap and then use the sharp pencil to poke several small holes in the top to make smelling the goodies possible but not too easy. Make less holes for the really pungent stuff like cinnamon and more for others if needed. Repeat the process down at the other end of your table.

Smell Like A Bee Continued 3). Make sure that when you are done, you have two of each sample (one on each end of the table) so that your child can find the match. Now jumble up the order of one set of containers to make this smelling activity a true challenge!

4). Have your child take a good strong sniff of the first sample at one end of the table, inhaling the scent through the small holes in the plastic wrap. Ask them what it smells like. They need to store that smell away as they buzz their way to the other side of the table where you’ve placed the second set of samples. Now, see if they can be like a bee and locate the matching scent.

5 Let them continue fluttering from side to side until all the smelly matches have been discovered. Talk to them about the different scents–which ones are they able to identify?

Which smell is the strongest? Which is their favorite?

Bees in the D Jr. Presents:

Buzz Worthy Activities