[thebeesknees]

I recently installed motion detector lights on two sides of my house, about 25'-30' from my hives. I've noticed that it doesn't take long for them to swarm to the lights when they go on at night. The bees are mostly gone in the morning, although there were a lot clinging to areas near the lights this morning. It wasn't because it was cold, as live in Tampa/St. Pete. So my question is, what becomes of those bees? Do they know how to return to the hive when the sun comes up, or do they just wander off? If it's the later, that's obviously a big problem.

Thanks in advance.

 

[c-bees]

I read somewhere that often, bees sleep on flowers at night, like they were working late and just camp out. And they go home in the morning......

 

[rwlaw]

They’ll return to the hive once the sun comes up and they can orientate themselves.

 

[Mike Gillmore]

Not sure what happens to the bees, but if you want to stop them from being drawn out to the light use dark red bulbs. Bees cannot see the color red.

 

[dd33]

Not sure what happens to the bees, but if you want to stop them from being drawn out to the light use dark red bulbs. Bees cannot see the color red.

Is this really true? I have two red heat lamps in our chicken coop right now and they attract bees.

 

[rwlaw]

I use red leds at night, the brighter area light (rather than the headlamp) does attract bees so it must give off some UV waves

 

[Michael Bush]

>I have two red heat lamps in our chicken coop right now and they attract bees.

What we perceive as red isn't always true red. They can't see true red, but if it's a bit orange they can. Then heat lamps also are warm which may attract the bees to the heat.

 

[thebeesknees]

Thank you to all who responded. Much appreciated.