Water source

[halexaron]

Folks,
I am starting my beekeeping hobby this spring and settling on final placement of the hives. I have an in-ground salt water pool and plan on providing an alternate water source close to the hives in order to discourage the ladies from using it.

My question is: how close/far from the hives should I establish the water source to coax them in to using it vs. my pool?

 

[REDWOOD]

A couple of hundred meters, place it to close to a hive and it could end up with bee poo in it. You will probably find that they will still prefer the salty water though

 

[Obee1]

I placed a water source about a metre from my hive entrance but never once saw a bee use it. Presume they preferred the stream across the road however a few weeks ago we placed a bird bath just outside garden window in order to admire the birds bathing. This is at least 20 feet from hive. Yes, the bees have found it. It has several bees drinking from it all day long. Now worried they will fly in if I open window.

Obee

 

[Dishmop]

Now worried they will fly in if I open window.

does that pose a different situation than you walking outside in the area where they live?

 

[Queen Brenda]

I have a couple of large buckets with gravel and because I left them open all winter there is now a layer of leaves and they are full of rain water. The bees love them and although they are only a meter away from the closest hive, bees in there drinking constantly. My neighbour had complained previously that my bees were in her garden in large numbers interested in a bag of damp compost.

 

[enrico]

To the side of any flightpath. I use a shallow dark tray filled with moss and put it in full sun. About 10 metres away from hive. The bees land on the moss and take the warm water by the hundred! Sometimes you can't see the moss for the amount of bees drinking. I have a cold stream in the garden, some bees use it but the water is much colder so they prefer the tray.
E

 

[user 6228]

A black plastic orange juice barrel , the type with a tray like lid, Put just enough water in the barrel to make the barrel stable in a sunlit spot. Then put water in the lid for the bees the drink. The almost empty black barrel heats the water in the tray/ lid. Bees like it hot

 

[Hivemaker.]

The almost empty black barrel heats the water in the tray/ lid. Bees like it hot

Derek, surprised you haven't got a burco boiler full of boiling water bubbling away in your garden, so your bees to enjoy a hot drink.

 

[user 6228]

Derek, surprised you haven't got a burco boiler full of boiling water bubbling away in your garden, so your bees to enjoy a hot drink.

ha ha , we discovered the barrel trick because the bees discovered the barrel we were previously using for liquid fertilizer storage, had hot water in the lid

 

[itma]

To the side of any flightpath. I use a shallow dark tray filled with moss and put it in full sun. About 10 metres away from hive. The bees land on the moss and take the warm water by the hundred! Sometimes you can't see the moss for the amount of bees drinking. I have a cold stream in the garden, some bees use it but the water is much colder so they prefer the tray.
E

Yes, dark and well sunlit makes it warm (less chilling/paralising for the bees), moss to land on makes it safer for the bees (less drowning) and if it is 10/15 yards away then the bees are able to communicate the direction and distance to the water (rather than simply "nearby"), while also being close enough for the bees not to waste time flying or chill before they get home. All of which is going to make such a water feature very popular indeed.

 

[bontbee]

I have several "accidental" watering holes dotted around the garden. It means that where ever the sun is, at least one water source is in the sun (at least, when it's shining, anyway).

They include: a (very light coloured) bird bath; the dripping (black) tap on the water butt; a (black) bucket of water with a large clump of chives growing out of it, (don't ask); a fold in a compost bag with a few stray and slightly decayed (ie dark) leaves; a (green) plastic pot (no drain holes) more or less full of stones; the tiny garden pond with pebbles (and emergent plants later on) oh, and any damp soil!

It's amazing how quickly they switch from one to another as the sun moves round.

PS, it doesn't matter how attractive you think clean water is, bees generally have other ideas and go for the stuff with extra "body"

 

[MikeT]

There is a 2 1/2 ha reservoir within 50 yds of my hives. The bees land on the buoys holding up the submersible pumps and on the butyl lining at the edge. I have never seen the bees in the bird bath, chicken waters, sheep troughs, or puddles, they seem to prefer the 14.5 million gals in the reservoir. At least they will never run out of water !!!

 

[SixFooter]

PS, it doesn't matter how attractive you think clean water is, bees generally have other ideas and go for the stuff with extra "body"

This is why the newly set up sources don't get used. Leave them for the water to get a bit thicker and the bees will love them.

I set up a few that were not used for a year. It was only when the water started to smell a bit that the bees started to use them. Doesn't seem to matter how close they are to the hives

 

[wessexmario]

There could be a simple physics explanation for the preference for dirty water.

The surface tension of water decreases with rising temperature, and pure water has a higher surface tension compared to water filled with contaminants.

Maybe they find it easier to drink from sources where the surface tension is lower. (ie: warm and dirty)

 

[itma]

Bees can find turbid and smelly water much more easily than clean, colourless and odourless water.

 

[jonnybeegood]

There could be a simple physics explanation for the preference for dirty water.

The surface tension of water decreases with rising temperature, and pure water has a higher surface tension compared to water filled with contaminants.

Maybe they find it easier to drink from sources where the surface tension is lower. (ie: warm and dirty)

We set up a inflatable paddling pool for the dogs to keep them cool last summer , filled it with tap water & the bees came in droves to land on the sides to drink the droplets from splashes, we ended up taking it down just in case for the dogs sake. This was despite me having 3 other drinking stations with gravel & moss with rain water , which they were also using, but more used the pool. Maybe it was the bright blue colour that attracted them. I have some pics i'll find later.

 

[user 6228]

water on the greenhouse floor is another favourite

 

[bontbee]

Are your bees smart enough to find the way out?

 

[Curley]

The bees were very interested in our laundry today. I THINK they were sucking moisture from it but they were certainly sitting (Perching ?)on it despite it blowing about in the wind. I went over to take a look and one of them produced a series of droppings and then cleared off with what I imagine was a spring in her metaphorical step.

Fortunately

1. It was a brown shirt (not indicative of any political stance)
2. The poo seemed to roll right off ( so no dysentery there )

I thought that when people said laundry was spotted by cleansing flights it was aerial bombardment not sitting down on the job.

 

[jonnybeegood]

These are some of the pics I was meaning from tha paddling pool, not brill as they were took on a phone, when you see bees drinking from a water source like a pond, you don't notice how much they drink, when I watched these bees drinking droplets of water, they would suck a full droplet in a second & move on to the next, I was surprised how much they could take in one go.