My bees love wet soil or compost: in the summer, I keep a few
potted plants as well as trays of seedlings on the front porch,
and those are frequently visited.  I don't mind that, but I worry
that the bees will find my neighbours' wet soil and cause a disturbance.

More amusingly, one summer I had a slightly damaged a bag of composted
sheep manure sitting on the back deck waiting for me to apply it,
and there would be football-huddle-like groups of bees around the
holes, tiny behinds in the air as they reached down to sip the moisture.

I set up a small fountain a few feet from the hive, right in their
flight path.  The top level had river stones for them to stand on
(in retrospect, probably too smooth), and the bottom level had some
aquatic plants.  One summer they quite liked the "plant" level,
the following summer they were indifferent - perhaps because that
year I used different plants, which didn't cause so much brown goo
in their root systems and in the water.

I'm tempted to agree with people who say that bees seem to prefer
"dirty" water, but I also frequently find bees dead in the plant
saucer I keep full of (usually reasonably clean) water for the
birds and squirrels.

I'm reading with great interest as people describe their strategies
for convincing their bees to prefer one water source over another.


Anne, backyard beekeeper, Montreal.

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