How High Do Bees Fly?

Generally, bees tend to forage close to the ground, typically within a range of 3-5 stories (floors) of a building. This translates to approximately 10-20 meters.

Attracting Bees to Your Balcony

Try implementing some of the strategies below to create an inviting environment and attract more bees to your balcony. 

• Plant Flowers: Plant a few flowers to attract more bees, marigolds are a great choice as it also helps with pests.
• Flowering Herbs: Herbs such as rosemary, thyme, basil, and mint are excellent for attracting bees.
• Hanging Baskets: Fill hanging baskets with bee-attractive plants like petunias and fuchsias.
• Avoid Chemicals: Use natural pest control methods and avoid chemical pesticides that can harm bees.
• Bee Bath: Set up a shallow dish of water with pebbles or marbles for bees to land on and drink safely.
• Use Colour: Bees are particularly attracted to blue, purple, and yellow. Incorporate these colours into your balcony.

Function of Bees

Bees are vital for the pollination of many vegetables due to their ability to efficiently transfer pollen, leading to better fruit set, higher yields, and improved quality of the produce.

• Pollen Transfer: Many vegetables have flowers that produce pollen in one location (male parts) and require it to be delivered to another location (female parts). Bees transfer pollen as they move from flower to flower, seeking nectar.
• Increased Yield: Bee pollination often increases the number of fruits produced and can improve the size, shape, and taste of the vegetables.
• Pollination Efficiency: Bees are efficient and visit a large number of flowers in a single day, making them highly effective.
• Genetic Diversity: Cross-pollination facilitated by bees can lead to greater genetic diversity in plants, which is beneficial for plant resilience and adaptation.

Vegetables That Require Bees

Bees play a crucial role in the pollination of many vegetables, which is essential for the plants to produce fruits and seeds. These plants have large, separate male and female flowers. Bees transfer pollen from male to female flowers, enabling fruit development. Here are some key vegetables that require bees for effective pollination.

• Cucumbers
• Squash, Pumpkins, and Courgettes
• Cantaloupe, Watermelon (Melons)

Are Bees Strictly Necessary?

Not all vegetables require bees for pollination. Many vegetables are grown for their leaves, stems, roots, or tubers rather than their fruit or seeds. Other vegetable plants are self pollinating and while bees are helpful to increase yields they are not necessary. 

Vegetables That Do Not Require Bees

Many vegetable plants do not require pollination to produce fruit at all. These plants either produce fruit without fertilisation or are harvested for their vegetative parts.

• Lettuce, Spinach, Kale, Swiss Chard (Leafy Greens)
• Carrots, Radishes, Beets, Turnips, Potatoes, Garlic, Onions (Root Vegetables)
• Asparagus, Celery (Stem Vegetables)
• Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts (Brassicas)

Vegetables That Benefit from Bees

Self-pollinating vegetables that contain both male and female parts are able to pollinate themselves, for example with the assistance of wind. Although these can self-pollinate, bee activity improves fruit set and quality by facilitating cross-pollination between flowers.

• Tomato, Peppers
• Aubergine
• Beans, Peas