How Do Bees Taste?

Updated: 28th January 2021

You may have seen honey bees poking their tongues into flowers, and wondered whether honey bees taste with their tongues as we do.  Honey bees have taste buds not only on their tongues, but in a number of locations on their bodies!

6 Tantalizing Facts About How Honey Bees Taste



Now for more information......

Why is taste important for bees?


1. Choosing good food sources

Bees use their sense of taste to enable them to detect the differences between things that are edible.  It also may help them to detect the nutrient value of the pollen and nectar they are gathering.  

honey bee on dark pink dahlia flowerHoney bee - Apis mellifera on dahlia.

For example, bees can detect the ‘sweetness’ value of a food, which is usually an indicator of the amount of sugar.

Sugars (carbohydrates) provide bees with their energy.  The ability to select high sugar nectar is important for bees because they use a lot of energy relative to their size for their daily survival, in activities such as flying, vibrating their wings, tending the colony and larvae etc. 

Other nutrients in pollen, such as amino acids and proteins are important for developing larvae.  Research suggests that honey bees are able to detect differences in protein value between different pollens.


2. Nest mate recognition in the colony



Honey bee queen on capped comb with attendant workers. The queen is much larger than the workers.Honey bee - Apis mellifera workers with queen.

3. Identifying water sources



4. Identifying and collecting other materials


Do honey bees have ‘taste buds’ to taste with?


Of course, the tongue is considered to be most important for the sense of  taste in humans.   In the honey bee, the taste receptors look a bit like hairs, and these sensors are found on:

  • the antennae,
  • mouthparts, and  
  • the front tarsi (feet). 


The subesophageal ganglion is located below the oesophagus, inside the head. Read about honey bee anatomy.

What kinds of flavours can honey bees taste?


It seems bees naturally avoid highly concentrated bitter tastes. 






honey bee worker foraging on small white bryony flower, a plant that creeps along the ground.

Tasting with the antenna




Tasting with the tongue and mouth parts



Tasting with the feet








  • Ghosh, S., Jeon, H. & Jung, C. Foraging behaviour and preference of pollen sources by honey bee (Apis mellifera) relative to protein contents. j ecology environ 44, 4 (2020).

Brilliant Bees puzzle Book cover