Dd and I are feeling rather like Alfred Russell Wallace (whose monument we chanced upon in Usk the other day), or Ernest Duchesne in that we had spent a couple of hours with our noses buried in our bee garden, taking notes as to which flowers the bees preferred. We hadn't actually collated the numbers or drawn any conclusions, but we were darn close to doing this, when what should happen but we wake the next day to hear first thing on the BBC news...BEES PREFER PURPLE FLOWERS.
It now emerges that we could have told them that. Can we have an enormous research grant please?
Your bee garden looks lovely.....:0)
ReplyDeleteDo you know WHY they prefer purple flowers?
Ah now, that's a good question. We were so shocked that they had stolen our thunder that we missed that bit! Will have to see if they did have an explanation, and if not, we'll apply for that grant!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.associatedcontent.com/article/288105/studies_determine_why_bumblebees_prefer.html
ReplyDeleteAh fantastic anon....thanks for the link with the explanation.
ReplyDeleteIt has rained almost solidly since, so we haven't been able to re-check our numbers, but we did come out with a marginal preference for purple!