.
Maeterlinck’s mentor
had straw hives painted
bright pink, clear yellow
& tender blue
Von Frisch advised
paint your hives
blue, yellow, black
& zinc white
Sir John Lubbock
demonstrated bees'
fondness for colours
especially blue
Maurice Maeterlinck, tr. Alfred Sutro, The Life of the Bee
Karl von Frisch, Bees: Their Vision, Chemical Senses and Language
Sir John Lubbock, Ants, Bees, And Wasps, 1882
had straw hives painted
bright pink, clear yellow
& tender blue
Von Frisch advised
paint your hives
blue, yellow, black
& zinc white
Sir John Lubbock
demonstrated bees'
fondness for colours
especially blue
Maurice Maeterlinck, tr. Alfred Sutro, The Life of the Bee
Karl von Frisch, Bees: Their Vision, Chemical Senses and Language
Sir John Lubbock, Ants, Bees, And Wasps, 1882
to the bee
blue is blue
to the bee
white appears
blue-green
to the bee
being red blind
red and black
appear the same
to the bee
orange yellow and green
appear the same
to the bee
blue and purple
are more attractive
than violet
to the bee
many of the flowers
we call red
are really purple
and appear blue
to the bee
which sees shorter wave-lengths
ultra-violet seems attractive
Karl von Frisch, Bees: Their Vision, Chemical Senses and Language
bees preferring blue
we may wonder
why there are
not more blue flowers
because the ancestor
of the blue flower
was once a flower
of green
was once a flower
of white
was once a flower
of yellow
was once a flower
of red
as with V. tricolour alpestris
yellow when it opens
it turns blue
as the individual flowers
repeat the phases
of its Viola ancestors
Sir John Lubbock, Ants, Bees, And Wasps, 1882
.