Honeybee behaviour - collective 'drinking'?

[Ed Woods]

welcome to the forum
my bees like to suck the moisture out of the cow manure on the allotment mmmmm can't wait for that honey

Mine suck the moisture from fresh chicken poo - we could market a range of genuine farmyard honey

My chickens ignore bees although if they stand in front of a beehive they attract a crowd of frustrated bees.

 

[drstitson]

"Do they really "unload" that quickly?"

Those figures were rough ones given by Tom Seeley in one of his talks at the NHS.

Given that he seems to have successfully identified all the feral colonies in a 1651 hectare forest using bee sighting i'd go with his figures!!!!

 

[mexbigshow]

just been on the allotment and the bees seem to be taking full advantage of all the rain we have had, all the manure was covered in bees the poly tunnel door frame at the bottom was and the hosepipe

 

[AstralHighway]

Hey bee ginner - I wish that were true. I got this stat from a beekeeping exhibition on Hackney Marshes, close to where I live. That's what they told me. It's not that surprising as apart from gardens like mine, this is a very densely urban area. I think Hackney City Farm is the closest known hive to me.

Until this year, I saw very few honeybees even entering my garden, despite having a proliferation of attractive blossom. The most common ones I see are leaf-cutters and various solitary bees.

 

[beehive1234]

[/QUOTE]
I do not know where the nearest hive is. Until I saw these bees, I believed it to be as far as 3.5 miles away.[/QUOTE]

The local Bee Keeping Association would be a good place to begin. They would have all members in your area. Plus you would get to know other bee keepers and perhaps end up keeping your own?

Thier was a great tv programme the other evening in which it reported lots of hives on rooves in London. Rooves of buildings like, industrial buildings, financial buildings, and retail giants, rather than homes. Not far away, as the 'crow flies.'

In my opinion it would be a great shame to track down and end a collony in an overgrown garden, don't you think?

Very interesting about the mineral content needed, not just water, probably why my Jack Russel keeps eating the chicken poo, despite my objections.