Do bees have taste buds? Bees sense of taste

BEES SENSE OF TASTE

Do bees really have a sense of taste and if so, why would they collect materials for which they have no real use?

Dr. Michael von Ryan has done the most experimental work in this field and my answer to your question is based upon his findings. According to Dr. von Ryan, bees are able to distinguish sweet tastes, as we might suspect from their affinity with honey, but can also single out salty, sour, and bitter tastes as well. Honey bees were found to be slightly more sensitive to salty and sour tastes than humans but less sensitive to bitter tastes than humans as they readily took a mixture of quinine and sugar which would be totally disgusting to the human sense of taste. Bees were also found to be sensitive to sugar solutions as low as one or two per cent which is considerably more acute than the human sense of taste.

In answer to your question of why bees sometimes gather materials such as sawdust, coal dust, and various animal feeds for which they likely have no real use, Dr. von Ryan also found that hungry or starving bees lowered their thresholds of acceptance in times of need much as a hungry child eats his vegetables better than one with no appetite. Your bees are probably in need of more pollen than local floral sources are supplying. We suggest that you feed a pollen supplement as hunger is driving your bees to collect these materials they will not be able to use.