Many insects can obtain the water they need from their food. Bees, however, need to drink water. Honey bees use water to make honey and to cool the hive.
As the weather heats up, I thought I'd review some ways to provide water for bees in the garden. This is especially important in this drought year, as some typical water sources such as leaking faucets may not be available. This is what commercial beekeepers do; their “bee board” is just a fancy name for a board leaning underneath a slowly dripping faucet. This can be recreated in a more water-conserving way by placing a board under the faucet of a rain barrel. Bee board under the slow drip from a rain barrel
A shallow bird bath with stones and corks for perching is a great bee water source in the home garden
Honey bees drinking at the Haven's custom watering stations. Notice that the girls don't stand in water while they drink.
This year I've added a water source to the garden made from old soaker hoses. The "beetainer" bee water source and planter made from a used soaker hose
Here's how it's done:
First step in the beetainer construction: make sure the faucet end faces out and use a zip-tie to attach the two rows
Next step: continue to attach each row to the one below with a zip-tie. Face the end of the zip-ties to the interior of the container.
The completed container. I left the zip-tie ends as shown since they did not interfere with planting
Bees prefer what we may perceive as 'dirty' water. Leaves that fall into water leach out minerals that can be important bee nutrients. Researchers have found that bees will preferentially select a water source that contains a mineral that is deficient in their diet.
So algae in a water source has the potential to be beneficial because it will provide nutrients. One caution is that toxic algal blooms have increased in recent years. I'm unable to find any studies about the effect of toxic algae on bees. If the water in your storage container came from a drinking water source this shouldn't be an issue, but it might be a good idea to change it every so often to be safe.
Glad you find this useful. It's so important for bee health to provide water, which is something that bee gardeners are often not aware of.
It gets hot here in central California as well. I keep mine in a spot that gets morning sun and afternoon shade, and I need to fill it about every other day.
My only concern with your location is that bees might not fly under a porch cover. They navigate by the sun and need to have the sky overhead.
The honey bees you see are collecting water mostly to cool the interior of their hive. As colder winter weather arrives the need for this diminishes. When it's cold enough that your pipes might freeze, it's cold enough that the bees won't need your water source.
Glad you would like to take care of the bees that use your garden. Be sure to have something in bloom at all times; if you're in California the Haven's plant list is a good place to start: https://beegarden.ucdavis.edu/BeeGardeningResources
Thank you for providing all this great information about taking care of the bees!
Glad you are finding the blog helpful. Please try placing your water source in a plant container and let us know how that works.
Bees tend to return to a water source once they've found it, and it seems they prefer your bog garden. Possibly the surface of the rock is too hot for them to stand in, while the mud is cooler. Could you create a muddy area away from the carnivorous plants?
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