What do they like about wood chips ...

[Andy Coleman]

We have bees on an allotment, and there was a large old goat willow nearby which has just been cut down and chopped into logs. There are piles of chippings on the ground from the chainsaws and bees were all over these apparently taking something from them.

Would this be sap, or propolis, or just moisture? There is plenty of water around, and I thought once they had a water source they tended to stay with it. I didn't think they treated sap as nectar, but does anyone have views?

 

[Skyhook]

We have bees on an allotment, and there was a large old goat willow nearby which has just been cut down and chopped into logs. There are piles of chippings on the ground from the chainsaws and bees were all over these apparently taking something from them.

Would this be sap, or propolis, or just moisture? There is plenty of water around, and I thought once they had a water source they tended to stay with it. I didn't think they treated sap as nectar, but does anyone have views?

Don't know, but I had a pile of woodchip delivered the other day, and bee were on it as the lorry drove away.

 

[Tom Bick]

More likely the Sap and the water within.

The chips also slightly warm if fresh as they start to break down.

 

[yantabulla]

A component of propolis perhaps?

 

[Skyhook]

Just a thought- the sap contains sugar, it prpbably smells like food.

 

[Andy Coleman]

thanks - that's interesting, presumably the woodchips you had delivered were relatively dry (i.e. not fresh from chopping the tree down), so maybe the propolis idea is more likely? When I looked again at ours a day or two later, there weren't any bees on the woodchips, but it was later in the afternoon and colder. Since a good number of bees are going to it, I assume this must mean they are dancing back at the hive to recruit foragers, regards Andy