Your bees need a drink!

wow, thats really awesome. Did you build it?

It sure does blow my simple bird bath with gravel away!!

1 recycled hot tub, 1 recycled jacuzzi tub, a bunch of recycled slate paving stone, 12 years younger, 2 years under construction & a wife whose landscaping philosophy is not minimalist.

Seriously tho, hundreds of bees are flowing between the water and hives (they especially like the water on the stones that might be providing some minerals as well). I noticed some last year, but this year (almost like summer already), many more.

Wyldbee said:

It sure does blow my simple bird bath with gravel away!!

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I don't think they need 600+ GPH, but it's good to know you're understanding their needs (I never thought about it until I observed it). Are you seeing a lot of bees comming to your water source? Is it very close to your hives?

"I'm fortunate to have this 20 feet from my hives..."

Sure, now my bees (and wife) want a similar setup.

Something I haven't heard discussed here is that bees are ectothermic. This means that they like to drink warmer water so that their bodies don't cool down too much.

That certainlkly makes a lot of sense.

Beautiful water garden. I bet the bees do love it. My have this strange fascination with this bucket that had a plant in it. Not a water plant but some kind of flower that is long gone. I keep it 3/4 full. Fill it at night so I dont drown bees. They friggin love it. Peace Dave

hoodswoods said:

Are you seeing a lot of bees comming to your water source? Is it very close to your hives?

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I have not seen any using it yet. it is about 8' from the hives. I have it positioned behind the hives, I wonder if I should place it in front? They do have sugar water in the hive and the poplar trees are in bloom now. There is also a small stream nearby.

I provide a fountain with water for the bees at my home yard near their hives but they prefer to fly about 800 ft away to a natural spring that is on the property to get their water. Like with the fountain they like landing on the rocks next to the spring so there may be something to getting water that has minerals in it.