by Jon Zawislak - June 13, 2022
All creatures need water -- and bees are no exceptions! Bees may be able to get sufficient water from the nectar they drink to get by, but they are often found drinking water from other sources in the summer. Honey bees particularly need extra water because they use it to cool their hives in the summer time.
Honey bee colonies can get hot!
A honey bee colony could have over 40,000 members by the middle of the summer. Even though they each very small, all those bodies can produce a lot of heat. Honey bees maintain a fairly constant temperature of 93 degrees inside their nest, which is the perfect temperature to incubate baby bees. They can warm things up when the weather is cold, but they also need to cool things off when the weather gets hot.
How do honey bees cool off?
Honey bees are remarkable creatures that have learned to ventilate their homes. Many bees will line up together, facing one direction, and actively fan their wings, creating air currents into and out of a bee hive. They bring in fresh, cool, oxygen-rich air, while blowing out the stale, humid air filled with carbon dioxide. When our temperatures are hotter than the ideal nest temperature, however, just bringing in outside air doesn't help as much. They bees then rely on evaporative cooling.
You might notice honey bees lining up for a drink at a puddle, a creek, a bird bath, or even near a swimming pool. They fill their nectar crops with water (this is the same extra "stomach" they use to transport nectar back home from the flowers they visit). Back at the hive, the busy bees will deposit tiny droplets of water all around the hive. Now, as the bees fan their wings, the moving air evaporates the water, and carries some of the heat away with it. They use the same activity to evaporate water from nectar to help turn it into honey.
You might feel a little cooler when you climb out of a pool, as the breeze draws off some of the water and makes your skin feels cooler. Before refrigerated air conditioning was popular, people relied on evaporative coolers -- also known as swamp coolers -- to help make homes more comfortable. This technology goes back to the ancient Egyptians, who are believed to have hung wet blankets across windows to help cool the breezes coming into a room. But honey bees should really get the credit for coming up the idea first.
How can you provide water for bees?
Want to treat the bees in your neighborhood with some fresh cool water? You can leave a dish out for them, or keep your bird bath full if you don't mind them buzzing around your garden. Bees can't swim, though, and they can't sip while on the wing like a hummingbird. Bees must land in order to take a drink, which is why you will observe them lined up at the edge of a water source. You can fill a container with clean gravel they can sit on while they sip, or provide them with pieces of wood floating in the water for them to land on. Bees will also visit swimming pools and hot tubs if they can't find any other water sources.They will usually be found sipping from puddles splashed around the pool, and won't try to get to climb down the ladder. So be mindful of them as you walk around in your bare feet.
Bees are always on the lookout for a sweet treat.
These bees are out on an important mission to collect water for their colony. They don't have any interest in stinging people, but if they feel threatened, they might react defensively. Also, be mindful of sweet foods and drinks outside in the summer. Bees and other insects might be enticed by the smell and flavor of your soda pop, candy, and sliced watermelons. Cover food and drinks to keep any insects out, and don't swat at a bee that may just be looking around.
If you want to provide bees with water, you'll need to keep it consistently topped off.
If the water source dries up, they will find another one. Beekeepers should provide their bees with water nearby, so they don't have to exert as much energy gathering fresh water, and to keep them from having to find it where they may not be so welcome. Hot summer weather also means wildflowers become more scarce. Plant things that will bloom in July and August, when there may be little other forage available, and keep those gardens watered too!
FAQs
How can you provide water for bees? Want to treat the bees in your neighborhood with some fresh cool water? You can leave a dish out for them, or keep your bird bath full if you don't mind them buzzing around your garden. Bees can't swim, though, and they can't sip while on the wing like a hummingbird.
How do you provide water for bees? ›
Some beekeepers simply use buckets. Add a sponge in a bucket for a simple landing pad or hang a rag halfway in so the bees can take water directly from the rag, or float corks in the water. Any non-toxic floatation device will work! Make sure you refill your bucket and check it often for mosquito larvae.
How do you make homemade bee waterer? ›
All you need to do is grab a pan or shallow bowl, and add a good amount of stones, pebbles or marbles before filling with water. The rocks and knick-knacks will give bees a nice landing spot and help avoid drowning. It's best to change the water every week or so to make sure other insects don't lay eggs.
How do bees carry water to a hive? ›
As I mentioned before, honey bees use their proboscis, their thin, strawlike appendage, to slurp up water. Once they slurp, they store the water in their honey stomach, or, crop, in order to safely transport the liquid back to the hive.
Do bees like to get wet? ›
Bees don't actually swim in pools
In fact, they don't even like to get their feet wet so you're more likely to see them standing on the edge of a pool or resting on the net in order to collect water.
Where is the best place to put water for bees? ›
Find a place for your bee waterer.
If you've noticed bees in your yard or garden, place the bowl near where you've observed the most activity. If you haven't noticed many bees in your yard, put the bowl in a shaded location near a food source, like flowers.
Should a bee waterer be in sun or shade? ›
Placement of your pond should be in the full sun or partial shade. A good rule of thumb is that bees prefer warm water when the weather is cold and cool water when it is hot.
Will sugar water help a bee? ›
The RSPB suggests getting a small container or spoon and offering two tablespoons of granulated white sugar to one tablespoon of water. If you have your Bee Revival Keyring, this is an easy step for your spontaneous encounter with a tired bee.
How do you save a thirsty bee? ›
To make this simple energy drink for an exhausted bee, mix two parts water to one part white granulated sugar in a tablespoon, then place the spoon at an easily accessible distance from the tired bee in question. Give the bee time to drink, and it should return on its travels in no time.
How to keep bees from drowning in a bird bath? ›
Place a few pieces of cinder block in your birdbath so that the bees don't drown. The cinder block will provide a safe place for the bees to land and will wick water up. Bees use water to cool the hive and to mix with honey and pollen for food.
Bees collecting water is almost as common a sight as bees on flowers. A strong hive on a hot day can use over a quart of water a day, this occupies 800 workers each making up to 50 trips to the water hole a day.
How close do bees need to be to water? ›
In general, bees need water no farther than half a mile from their hives. Some recommend a water source should be within 150 feet of their homes, which makes sense to me.
How to tell if a bee is dying or tired? ›
A dying bee may take a drink but will not get better. A tired bee on the other hand, will quickly pick up and fly off. Offering sugar water to either will do no harm.
How to save a dying bee? ›
A simple solution of sugar and water can work wonders in giving them the energy they need to fly away – as long as the appropriate time has passed. To create this energy drink to revive tired bees, the RSPB suggests mixing two tablespoons of white granulated sugar with one tablespoon of water.
How do you feed honey bees water? ›
So I would mix it with this year's and sell it, as mark said you just need more customers. Bees take honey faster if it is diluted with hot water. Mix should be about 70% honey and 30% water. Don't give the bees more than they can take and store overnight.
Where do bees get water from? ›
Bees find water from many sources. You will often see bees clustered around small seeps and leaks from pipes or hoses. In the early spring, bees will use small pools of snow melt, even when the water is perilously near freezing.
Is it OK to feed bees honey water? ›
Do not feed bees honey unless it is from your own disease-free hives. Spores of American foulbrood disease can be present in honey. Feeding honey from an unknown source, such as a supermarket or even another beekeeper, can cause infection in your hives.
