Can you lead a bee to water?

[Pete0]

Try to make a long story short. My previous hives have used my neighbor's birdbath as a water source last year. New year, new colonies. I put a clay dish on a telephone pole stump under a tree limb. Filled it with large gravel and suspended a 5 gal bucket with a drip hole in the bottom above it. I've filled that bucket and have had it dripping out there for over a month and have never seen a bee near it. Just finished reading an article in Bee Culture magazine about the Nasanov pheromone. Went out and bought a can of Lemon pledge yesterday morning and about 10:00 AM I sprayed half a can all over that creosote pole and then walked about 20 yards from the 2 hives in the yard and every 10 steps sprayed a mark on the ground leading to that water. This afternoon at 6:00 PM there are bees at that dish! Coincidence? I think not.

[Michael Bush]

Good plan. It also helps if the water has some smell to it. Clorine, HBH, lemongrass oil, wintergreen whatever. Old smelly water is appealing to the, not because they like the rotten water, but because they recruit by smell.

[Tia]

I filled a metal fire pit with stones and put some water in it. My girls are drawn to it! They love it! I fill it to the top every day and they come flocking. The attached was taken in its first days. I'll have to take another picture now that they know where it is because there's always at least two dozen bees drinking! http://groups.msn.com/BHGFriendlyGardeners/3sacharm.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=15064