>
> >You don't pee in an outhouse, so you go in the bushes. That spot was
> always covered by foraging bees. I always assumed they were looking for
> salt.


This is a common way to attract butterflies for collection, but embarrassing
with regard to honey bees.

One interesting paper that I read studied the attractiveness of various
water sources to bees.  Dried cow dung in water was very attractive, but
when further analyzed, it wasn't the salt, it was the salt-free odor.
 However, this could be due to the evolutionary wiring of bees to seek dung
or urine for salt.

The salt in water issue is very confusing, as a number of studies have found
salt to be toxic to bees, yet others finding that bees greatly preferred
water with a bit of salt.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm