From Jerry:
"One of our UM Master students did a project where she was able to show  that bees preferred water with minerals."

On the other hand, one of our  MT commercial beekeepers (who passed away many years ago) was an experimenter.  He got the bright idea of turning pallets into shallow trays - in order to catch rain water - so the bees wouldn't have to fly to get water.   What  he  got was a swamp of brackish water under every hive."

I am that student, and bees seemed to prefer (in the absence of sugar) a very weak salt water source, closely followed by muddy ditch water full of decomposing organic matter. My interest in water sources grew out of concern that my bees were gathering water from the only local fresh water source:, ditches and swamps that fill with runoff from agri-sprayed fields. And a lot of our local bees are in back yards, so keeping the bees out of the neighbours' water sources is important.

I wanted to know what they preferred in order to inform my plan to tempt them toward new, clean sources I provide (5 gallon chick waterers).

The bees are intensely loyal to the sources they choose in early spring, and that loyalty can endure from season to season. I found the best way to bait them to a new source is to offer slightly sugared water, and then gradually remove the sugar once they are using the source. If that causes problems with mold and too many bees, their second preference is slightly salted water.

Just from my own observation, they like to sip from a surface coated in water ie. a board, sponge, wet rock or some cardboard wicking water.

Bee Culture has a copy of the project, so I hope it finds its way into a future issue. : )

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