As a beekeeper, you must clearly understand what your bees like and what they don’t. Because bees behave differently under different circumstances.
You might be thinking do bees like jazz? Or do they like any music?
The straight answer is bees actually do not like jazz but they like somewhat music of a certain frequency.
In this particular tutorial, I am going to discuss with you which kinds of music bees like and which they don’t.
Though there is no universal proof of this fact. But a lot of beekeepers like me have been researching which type of music do bees like.
So, from my personal experiment and some of the information collected from other beekeepers, about do bees like music or not, I am trying to discuss with you in this particular article.
Let’s start with answering some questions related to the auditory system of bees.
Do Bees Have Ears?
The answer is No. Bees don’t have any ears. Though they don’t have any ears, they can hear sound and they can react to different types of noise.
How Do Bees Hear Without Ears?
You might be surprised that bees can hear and react to noise even though they don’t have any ears. Bees can detect sound through their antennae and entire body hair.
Their antennae are the most active part of their body to detect and react to sound. This particular body part actively works to communicate with each other inside a colony.
How Noise & Music Affect Bees And How They React?
Well, bees are strongly affected by different types of noise. Bees can react positively to some sounds or music of frequency between 10 to 500 Hz with lower intensity.
But they are negatively affected by higher frequency noise of high intensity.
Most beekeepers have noticed that honey bees get a shock if they are encountered by music of frequency 1000 Hz or more and intensity above 100 dB.
In that particular case, they are kept silent and can’t move for a while altogether because of the shock they got due to the high-intensity noise.
Do Bees Actually Like Jazz?
Watching the “Bee Movie” released in 2007. I got interested in the fact that “do bees actually like jazz?“.
Because in that movie in a particular clip, we have seen that a bee is trying to communicate with a woman. Also, she mentioned that Bees like jazz.
But in reality, bees do not like jazz but they do like some types of music.
I have run an experiment around my hives to get the exact answer.
- I have taken 2 containers of sugar syrup and placed them in opposite directions of 100m distance from the hive.
- I placed a small sound box beside one container.
- And then played a piece of jazz music produced by a saxophone on the sound box with a high sound of intensity 120 dB.
- And keep this thing as it is for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes I noticed that bees are avoiding the sugar pot that has jazz music playing beside it.
- And a lot of bees are collecting sugar syrup from the other container.
- I also noticed that with a higher frequency of sound bees started behaving abnormally. They are apart away from their group and most of the bees are kept silent and fall down on the ground.
- When I stop the jazz music bees are still kept silent on the ground and other surfaces for 10-15 minutes. Then they started moving and flying with their swarm.
So, I came up with the decision after this experiment that bees do not like jazz at all. They actually try to avoid jazz and high-frequency noise.
Do Bees Like Music?
Bees actually like some types of music. So using those type of music you can attract bees in your garden.
Bees use two different types of dances to communicate with each other inside the hive. “Round dance and waggle dance”.
Waggle dance produces 200 Hz to 350 Hz of frequency.
Bees are attracted to music with a frequency range between 200 Hz to 500 Hz with partially low intensity. They started waggle dance when they get attracted to music.
During the experiment near my beehive, I noticed that bees avoid jazz produced by various musical instruments like guitar, saxophone, etc.
They actually get shocked by high-frequency noise.
But while I have tried different types of music of low intensity and frequency.
I have noticed that they are actually reacting positively to that particular music. They started waggling dance to the music.
I have a garden near my beehives. So, I played flute music at 350 Hz and saw an amazing thing.
After running the flute music for 2-3 minutes, I noticed that more bees than usual is coming into the garden and waggling near the music source.
From this experiment, I came to a conclusion that bees do like some sort of music.
So, I started with different types of music to attract more bees to my garden.
And I found that some of the music really works and do attract bees while some of them are not.
Which Type Of Music Attracts Bees To Your Garden?
As I already told you bees are attracted by music having a frequency range of 200 Hz to 500 Hz.
There is no universal proof of attracting any type of bees with a particular music.
But different beekeepers found different kinds of music are helpful to attract bees to their gardens.
Bees are usually like the music of frequency between 200 and 500 Hz, these range of frequencies are usually produced by bees inside a beehive.
So, you have to try different types of music of that particular range of frequencies. Then see which works for you to attract bees.
You can try flute music or some of the other songs like Crossroads by Cream, Money by Pink Floyd, and so many more.
Melody music is most attractive to bees. But you can also try other types of music like pop, rock, and hip-hop songs. You can even use some music near your bee swarm trap to attract and catch a swarm of bees.
Try a variety of music and see which works best for your case.
I made a playlist of music that might be helpful to attract bees to your garden. Check my youtube playlist on music that can attract bees.
Conclusion
Hopefully, now you get the idea that bees do not like jazz. But bees do like music.
But they do not like all types of music. If you can avoid all types of music near your beehive it would be great for them.
Because without any music they can leave peacefully and disturb less in their hive. They can live their natural daily life inside the colony.
But if you want to attract bees to your garden then you can use the music of small intensity and frequency range from 200 Hz to 500 Hz.
Jazz and high-frequency music can be very much harmful to bees. That’s why bees usually do not like jazz and they try to avoid jazz.
But they are okay and like the music of frequency range between 200 Hz to 500 Hz. So, you can use this type of music to attract them.
