There was an interesting discussion in Jan/Feb concerning providing
water for bees, in particular to prevent them from using "undesirable"
water sources (such as the neighbour's hot tub, or a runoff pond
contaminated with toxic chemicals). I'm planning my strategy for
this summer, so I intend to summarize what I've learned from our
discussion, in case this could be helpful to someone else.
My first step was to gather and organize information from all the
responses; the result is below. It's somewhat repetitive, so unless
you want this level of detail, feel free to skip this posting.
I'll send out an actual summary in the next few minutes.
Specifications of the water source (my suggestion):
- Be attractive to bees.
- Be safe for other wildlife also, such as birds and squirrels.
- Avoid breeding mosquitos, or control the mosquitos.
Timing:
- Janet L. Wilson: bees loyal to sources chosen in early spring.
- Przemek Skoskiewicz: start water feeders as soon as hive unwrapped
from winter, to make sure that bees learn the desired source.
- Jerry Bromenshenk: make sure that in the spring, the first
bee-friendly, easy to access, water source is one you provide BEFORE
any of the neighbor's sources become available.
- Glenn Woemmel suspects that once the bees pick a watering
location, they communicate it to their sisters and remain loyal to
that source.
Watering container/props:
- Janet L. Wilson: 5 gallon chick waterer, and bees like to sip
from a surface coated in water ie. a board, sponge, wet rock or some
cardboard wicking water
- Przemek Skoskiewicz: Boardman (entrance) feeders.
- Jerry Bromenshenk: small stock tank of water with floats.
- Randy Oliver: a porous substrate seems to be preferred, and
a little solar fountain seems to help -- a bit of movement of
the water.
- Gosia and David Liedlich (ABJ December 2017 pp.1260-1261)
suggested (for tiny apiaries!) the Perky-Pet Mason Jar Wild Bird
Waterer with sticks in the saucer to prevent drowning.
- Anna Farneski places flat sections of shale or bluestone
along the perimeter of a birdbath to allow the bees to cling to the
rock and walk over to the waterline.
- Ruth Askren: a half-whiskey barrel filled with water and water
hyacinth, with a slow drip-line strategically placed to splash the
water a little bit.
- Bill Greenrose: old cement birdbath with small landing stones.
Plastic kiddie pool (for ducks) with floating branches. Edges of
ponds and puddles.
- Aylett Apiaries: bees seem to avoid deep water, preferring
shallow water such as that provided by a leaky garden hose sprayer.
- Anne Bennett: I tried a small fountain that was essentially a
saucer with stones in it, but the stones may have been too smooth;
the bees preferred the rougher edge of the saucer.
- Deb Corcoran keeps a birdbath with stones in the middle of it,
and the bees also sip on a the drips from a leaky rain barrel.
- Jamie Beyer tried yellow sponges in chicken self-waterers, dead
leaves in shallow pond water, rocks in shallow pond water, yellow
sponges in shallow pond water, and floating plastic (needlecraft)
mesh, with little success, then hit on using crumpled up newspapers
(non glossy papers) soaking in an inch or two of pond water in large
saucers. He notes that the crumpled newspaper high points dry out
whereas the low points are higher in moisture level, which allows the
bees to land on something relatively dry and be able to walk to the
right moisture level. He intends to try moss in shallow water next.
- Glenn Woemmel uses a black plastic oil change pan with a few
rocks in it and a couple of pieces of soggy foam, sitting on a
table supprt. This set-up is under a tree, in the shade.
Attractants:
- Jerry Bromenshenk referred to Janet L. Wilson's work showing that
bees prefer (in the absence of sugar) a very weak salt water source,
closely followed by muddy ditch water full of decomposing organic
matter. She recommends attracting them to a new source by offering
slightly sugared water, and then gradually removing the sugar once
they are using the source.
- With respect to salt concentration, David Baker has often heard
suggested a ratio of 1 teaspoon per gallon. Randy Oliver's quick
review of the literature suggested 0.5% NaCl, which would correspond
to 3.3 teaspoons per gallon.
- John Chesnut quoted a study by Bonoan et al (2017) which concluded
that honey bees prefer "dirty" water over clean, like salt in their
water at all times, and like calcium, magnesium, and potassium in
their water in the fall when pollen is scarce but avoid them in the
summer when pollen is abundant.
- Peter Loring Borst quoted Butler (1940), who did *not* find mineral
preferences other than salt (in a study done in the spring), and
concluded that bees prefer dirty water because it has a distinct
odour that makes it easy to remember.
- Peter Loring Borst quoted Free et al (1983): Synthetic Nasonov
pheromone lures [...] stimulated bees to consume [...] water and
sucrose syrup provided in the field [and could also] be used to
condition bees to collect water provided by the beekeeper near
the hives. It seems that lemongrass oil can have a similar effect
(http://www.columbianamahoningbeekeepers.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Skep-April16.pdf
"The Skep", April 2016) However, Randy Oliver reports trying Nasonov
pheromone to lure bees to waterers, and DEET to repel them, without
success. Jerry Bromenshenk reports on a DARPA semiochemical study
that found Nasonov pheromone to be attractive to bees only after
they were conditioned to the scent with a reward (sugar syrup).
- Richard Cryberg's bees like mud pools and a pond that contains
decaying plant materials.
- Przemek Skoskiewicz uses high-mineral well water, with slight salinity
introduced by a water softener, and this competes successfully with
neighbouring swimming pools.
- Jerry Bromenshenk's magic attractant is anise.
- Randy Oliver had no luck with salt nor lemongrass oil, but bark or
other organics seem to help, especially aquatic plant roots with
adhering smelly mud.
- Anna Farneski has had great success by baiting birdbaths with a
few drops of bleach for the first few fills.
- Bill Greenrose: bees tend to like stinky, muddy water, and ignore
clean chlorinated water.
- Aylett Apiaries: bees seem to love the dirty water in potted plants.
- Anne Bennett: my bees love wet soil or compost. Water with aquatic
plants in it seems to be more attractive if the plant root are muddy.
- Deb Corcoran locates her watering device in a large area of catmint
and other bee attracting plants. She doesn't cut the old stems down,
and in late winter, sprinkles some Ultra Bee on them.
- Jim Jakim accidentally created "battery soup" when a can containing
batteries for recycling (D cells and at least one lithium) was
rained in. The bees drank from it, but showed no interest in the
clean water he replaced this with.
- Glenn Woemmel noticed masses of bees getting water from puddles
around a salt block he has out for deer.
- John Chesnut's bees like his neighbour's koi pond, which is heavily
salted to deal with fungal diseases in the expensive fish.
Randy Oliver looked up the recommended salt concentration for this
type of use, and found it to be 0.2%-0.4%, which is not far from the
0.5% often recommended in the bee literature as being attractive to
honey bees. A 0.3% solution, midway in the koi range, would be 2
teaspoons per gallon.
- James Fischer's bees like the condenser drip pans of rooftop A/C
units best of all.
Repellents:
- Jerry Bromenshenk discouraged bees from a particular water source by
adding Fischer's Bee Quick to it.
The mosquito issue:
- Randy Oliver points out that many species of fish eagerly consume
mosquito larvae, and recommends a native or other locally-adapted
minnow.
- Mike S also recommends minnows, which should be fed occasionally
with pet store fish food.
- Jamie Beyer has no mosquito problem; he states that mosquito larvae
require some open water so they can attach to the surface tension,
so his crumpled newspaper technique, which allows no open water,
doesn't allow this.
- Bill Greenrose points out that if the water vessel isn't large
enough to support goldfish, guppies may do just fine, and they will
control mosquitoes, too.
- John Chesnut uses "mosquito dunkers" (containing Bacillus
thuringiensis subspecies israelensis (Bti)) in his landscape
ponds. He points out that mosquito-eating fish also eat frog
eggs, which would be a problem for him.
- James Fischer points us to the "urban mosquito-fish lily pond"
pioneered by Mike Barrett based on some ag extension pamphlets found
at the NYU library. It is created in half a plastic 55-gallon drum,
with an aerator pump.
Anne, backyard beekeeper, Montreal.
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