Water is essential for honey bees - they use it to cool the hive and thin honey fed to larvae. A strong hive will use over a litre/quart on a hot day - which takes 800 bees 50 trips each to collect.
I set up a trough of water, partly for birds (who seem to have ignored it so far) and partly for bees - I put a brick near one end to hold a bunch of stones in a pile, for the bees to land on and drink without drowning. With the exception of one bee today, they've ignored the stones, preferring the flat landing pad of the brick.
I added some shadecloth pegged to a chair to shade the water as it was getting pretty warm in the full afternoon sun - today despite close to 40C temps, it stayed cool.
In this next photo, can you spot all the bee bums as they are head down on the sides of the bricks collecting water? I also have a shallow dish close-by with stones and water in it, but they ignore that and go for the brick all the time. Every time I look there are between 3 and 8 bees on it, with more in and out constantly.
Bees, like all creatures, need suitable food, water and shelter to thrive. Because water is so essential for bees, they will try very hard to get it. If the only water source around is a pool or trough with slippery sides, you're likely to find lots of drowned or drowning bees in them on a regular basis. But supply them with a bee-friendly water source, and they'll soon tell all their fellow workers - who will then stay away from the unsuitable sources. No dead bees in your swimming pool, but happy pollinators in your garden! A win-win!
By the way, I think the reason they pretty much have ignored the stones is that the stones are smoother, and so more slippery, but even more important, for a pile of stones to work, the upper ones are mostly out of the water, and they get pretty hot. The brick is sitting mostly in the water, with just it's upper part out, so comparatively speaking, has much more of it's mass submerged, and therefore stays cooler. I guess bees don't like burned tootsies either! The first and only bee I've seen on the stones was today, now the shade cloth is in place.
This trough has only been set up this way for the last couple of days. The numbers of bees there has increased steadily over the last couple of days - will be interesting to see how much traffic it is getting in another week or so!
By the way, I think the reason they pretty much have ignored the stones is that the stones are smoother, and so more slippery, but even more important, for a pile of stones to work, the upper ones are mostly out of the water, and they get pretty hot. The brick is sitting mostly in the water, with just it's upper part out, so comparatively speaking, has much more of it's mass submerged, and therefore stays cooler. I guess bees don't like burned tootsies either! The first and only bee I've seen on the stones was today, now the shade cloth is in place.
This trough has only been set up this way for the last couple of days. The numbers of bees there has increased steadily over the last couple of days - will be interesting to see how much traffic it is getting in another week or so!
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