Advice Please - thirsty bees

[Finman]

In the summer the nectar with it's higher water content may, or may not, be used directly for larvae feeding.

Yes it is. I have 2 gold fish pool in my yard and I can see from the number of bees when they are thirsty or not. In the morning nectar is quite mild when night moisture has swelled the nectar in flowers.

Bees gather dew droplets too in the morning. But during a dry day I can see how much bees need clear water.


If I put extracted combs to the hive, bees start to fly hugely.
When I spray water on combs, they will not speed their flying.
So bees rush to get water to clean their combs. I have thought that they go to rob some honey quell somewhere.

It very quick to give a spay from garden host onto combs.

The result is interesting. Try it!

.

 

[Annrbel]

Thank you to everyone for such helpful recommendations, especially as all of them mean you can as far as possible ensure the bees are getting clean water. However mine insist on continuing to suck on their rotting log, so moved their wet peat closer. Great standing in the sunshine watching them taking in pollen, and even better didn't even get dive bombed.

 

[BKF Admin]

If you find a way of getting bees to drink from a clean vessel rather than a dirty pool of muddy rain let me know..

 

[Tom Bick]

The bees once they have got used to the log may stick with it, be thankful its not your neighbours water feature

 

[BKF Admin]

The bees once they have got used to the log may stick with it, be thankful its not your neighbours water feature

I had to move a hive from the garden 2 years ago because a family up the road had an outside pool that the bees decended on!
The added clorine never seemed to bother the bees.

 

[wilderness]

I had a large silver birch taken down over the winter last year (2008/9). The tree surgeon cut it as close to the ground as possible. In the spring the sap started rising and the bees were all over the old trunk for most of the spring.

I guess they were after the water as well as some of the sugars in the sap.

 

[Finman]

I

I guess they were after the water as well as some of the sugars in the sap.

Birch sap has 0,5% sugars.

 

[Annrbel]

Tom's post made me think, 3 of us share a mini sewerage system, the water run off feeds into a ditch that runs behind the hives, eventually into the river. Bearing in mind bees less savoury habits, they may well have been at the neighbour's water feature - although I doubt the one you meant. Honey on my tea time crumpet Yum what a treat - maybe jam until the memory fades.

 

[VEG]

Not a very nice thought lol

 

[Tom Bick]

Annrbel yes not a good image to have in my mined but its the things the dog eats that disgusts me

 

[Black Comb]

Never forget when I was a lad working at the farm.
Guy came to buy eggs and rambled on about how healthy the free range eggs were.
One of the hens wandered across and picked at some dog ****.
He went quiet after that.

Was the source of much mirth when he left.

 

[mbc]

Tom's post made me think, 3 of us share a mini sewerage system, the water run off feeds into a ditch that runs behind the hives, eventually into the river. Bearing in mind bees less savoury habits, they may well have been at the neighbour's water feature - although I doubt the one you meant. Honey on my tea time crumpet Yum what a treat - maybe jam until the memory fades.

forget the jam and gloss up on the miracle which is the proventriculus

 

[wilderness]

Last spring I collected some fresh horse manure from the field opposite with the intention of putting it on the compost heap. The bees were on it like ... well .... bees round a honeypot

 

[Annrbel]

So what has the dog eaten - only post if not too disgusting. Just checked in before heading up to bed and enjoyed the fun of all the horrible places bees drink, and I'll get the Chambers out and look up the big word, it will be my word for tomorrow.
'Night All.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I have an upturned jar sitting on a black plastic dish. The sun warms up the dark dish quickly. There's stones and bits of wood in the dish for the bees to rest on. The large jar is plastic and has a small slot cut in it around the lid to allow a little water to come out. Simples.

Last Spring I opened my hives and found the plentiful slabs of ivy honey that were there in the autumn had prettywell gone (super under brood chamber) - but there's plenty of eating to be done before bees get enough food coming in to build up stores. I'm not too keen on Ivy honey but it does the job for bees. Bees and Ivy have been around for a lot longer than we have been trying to manage bees. Any surplus in supers could always be kept for next winter.

 

[Finman]

Any surplus in supers could always be kept for next winter.

Why?

I take all honey away in autumn and feed mere sugar.

In spring I feed the rest winterfood and even them between hives.
When I add the third box, I change the brood boxes and the rest winter food goes into circulation with new honey.

- No super honey for winter
- no spring feeding if it is not emergency.


Wintered bees will die soon after new bees emerge. They will not live longer even if you give them real honey in winter.

 

[Annrbel]

I attended a thought provoking talk given by the Natural Beekeeping Trust, they posited the idea that even the presence of honey in the hive goes to creating a healthful environment. Ensuring the winter bees are in prime condition even though they will die off as the spring brood emerges, means that the new bees benefit from the best of care and inherit the best internal environment. When I heard it I could not but help remember a documentary many years ago by David Bellamy and I can still see him walking by a rich and beautiful English hedgerow, breathing in deeply and exclaiming that with all the essential oils in the atmosphere he had taken in Nature's medicine. First opportunity I got I planted our own! I breathe deep when passing and like to think that my bees share the pleasure by keeping their own honey, even if it means a bit of sorting out in the Spring. We also got loads of honey last year when a lot of people around us were complaining of bad harvests - all incidentally sugar feeders, so it is quite possible that there is a correlation. Be interested if anyone has done the experiment to compare.

 

[Finman]

INatural Beekeeping Trust, they posited the idea that even the presence of honey in the hive goes to creating a healthful environment.... Be interested if anyone has done the experiment to compare.

I know that honey is only energy and other nutrients are in pollen.

 

[oliver90owner]

Finman is correct in that honey only contains about 2% pollen and about 80% sugars. That means it (pollen) is only 2 1/2% of the solids (and pollen is not all protein). Those solids are the waste which the bees have to store up until they can get a 'cleansing' flight.

That said, they have coped with that for many millennia before the interference of man, so proper honey is OK as a winter store. Also, of course this proper honey will be at a different pH to 'sugar' honey, something which may, or may not, have some bearing on the discussion.

I still allow my colonies to fill up with honey for the winter (ivy will do as part of it) if possible, knowing that none of my honey collected the following year will be 'sugar' honey. If I have to feed sugar, I make sure it is not moved to a honey super in the spring.

Ymmv, depending on whether you are a commercial enterprise or hobbyist or bee lover, etc.

Regards, RAB

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Finman,
Why?
Reference to my last post, I was referring to solid Ivy honey in the super which won't extract.