A hundred years ago, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Karl von Frisch proved that bees can see colour. Just like humans, bees are trichromatic which means they have three photoreceptors in each eye and the colour combinations they see are based in those three colours.
Our colour combinations are based on red, blue, and green, while bees base their colours on ultraviolet light, blue, and green and this is the reason why bees can’t see the colour red. They can, however, see reddish wavelengths, such as yellow and orange as well as blue-green, blue, violet, and something called “bee’s purple” which is a combination of yellow and ultraviolet light. (That sounds like an amazing colour, but unfortunately, humans can’t see it.)
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