Did you know bees get just as thirsty and exhausted by heat as you? If you keep bees or even if you just want to be a good neighbor or a thankful gardener, it’s easy to give bees a source of water.
In the video below, I discuss how I use a simple birdbath to do it, but do make sure to give bees a surface to land in order to drink, otherwise they may drown. You can do this by adding rocks to the birdbath that rise above the surface of the water.
Watch the video below and for more info on providing water sources for bees, check out my colleague Nancy Buffington’s article, here.
13 Comments
Providing water in a bird bath is good.My advise is to provide a dry sloping area towards water so that the bees can land slowly, reach water and not drown. The same applies when feeding during rainy season. Provide floats so that they drink safely
My bee hive is within 50 feet of backup pond water. 100 feet from a pond and 500 feet from a creek that has ponding areas. And where do my honey bees go? They go 20 feet to my tool shed where I have a small 1 gallon chicken waterer. They drink A LOT OF WATER. There is always 20 to 50 bees aroud the outside edge of the waterer. I fill it with fresh water every couple days.
a great nature space,,,a joy to watch, envy you in away,,,peace
creating a beer-hive is a great family project, or just a project for yourself,,,(plant some wild-flowers-help the beers)-peace
We’re hearing a lot in the news right now about how the mosquitoes that carry Zika like to lay their eggs in tiny puddles of water, and other varieties lay their eggs in larger water sources. Is there a way to make the bees happy without encouraging the mosquitoes?
Hi, Trish. I was wondering if you have any info now as to a way to possibly help bees with the water situation but without bringing on the mosquito breeding as well. I see no one replied here, but I, too, am extremely interested in this. I read somewhere that if you have moving water it helps, but I really was hoping for a somewhat more frugal option. I’m hoping either you found an option I could use, or maybe someone else on here has an idea/tip. Thanks!!
our bees seem to like getting their water from the moist soil in seedling flats around our greenhouse.
I tried a birdbath in front of hive, ignored, then filled it with peat moss after a few drowned in the BB, also ignored.
Also a dish with sand saturated with water, ignored.
Next will try filling the BB with soil and keeping it moist.
Bees avoid dark colors, so try materials light in color to be kept moist, without pooling water to avoid mosquito larvae.
Don’t forget to use a little lemon grass oil to get the bees to notice your water station when you first get it going. This will attract them to discover it, then they’ll tell their friends about it. Good news travels fast!
There are rings of mosquito killing larvae that float in the water, I am almost sure that it does not affect anything else, you can purchase them from places like the home depot garden center, please read instructions first to make sure.
To beekeeping, you have to study a lot.
I will come back often to read and learn materials.
I don’t keep bees but they do come to my yard for water in droves in Summer.
I have several fish ponds & they love to land on Water Lettuce (Pistia Stratiotes) & Salvinia Molesta. They can drink safely & there is no mosquito problem with Goldfish.
I also keep a terracotta pot base with pea gravel & water.This ends up being a hassle because I end up having to refill it a couple of times a day but the bees favour it.
I wrapped a birdbath stand and within the basin with the mini drip soaker hose and small rocks. It is on an automatic system to fill every morning.
The gentle drops that form on the soaker hose holes provide the bees with a place to drink. Then I also place a few drops of lemongrass oil into the basin so they are attracted to this glean and refreshing source of water.
Got my bees interested by putting a tablespoon of sugar on one of the flat rocks in my birdbath. Yellowjackets also came and were so intent on the sugar that i could crush them with a finger tip. Bees ignored me.
I used to hose away algae, but the bees went away also. Turns out they work the algae for whatever .. trace minerals? They also seem to like a few grains of table salt. Go figure……