Water Source

[ChrisT]

I am new bee keeper.

I have had a bowl of water next to my hive ever since I got the NUC the second weel of April.
I live near a creek that is maybe 500 feet away. I put the bowl next to my hive thinking they would need water immediately. Unbeknownst to me, I have read in a few places that once they establish a water source they wont look for another one.

If i remove the bowl (in an effort to make them find the creek) will it create undue hardship on them now that they have been drinking from this bowl for 3 weeks?

And will they necessarily find the creek? And is it good to let them drink from a creek that is basically a huge storm drain from street water runoff from the city (and may contain bad stuff from the streets)?

Thanks

Chris

[schawee]

it won't hurt them by removing the bowl.they probaly new about the creek a day or so after setting them up.       schawee

[AndrewT]

Yeah, only the lazy ones are still drinking from the bowl.  The others already been down to the creek.

[Michael Bush]

Bees are attracted to water because of several things:
•   Smell. They can recruit bees to a source that has odor. Chlorine has odor. So does sewage.
•   Warmth. Warm water can be taken on even moderately chilly days. Cold water cannot because when the bees get chilled they can't fly home.
•   Reliability. Bees prefer a reliable source.
•   Accessibility. Bees need to be able to get to the water without falling in. A horse tank or bucket with no floats does not work well. A creek bank provides such access as they can land on the bank and walk up to the water. A barrel or bucket does not unless you provide ladders or floats or both. I use a bucket of water full of old sticks. The bees can land on the stick and climb down to the water.

[AllenF]

I bet most of your bees are hitting the creeks already.   Think about how far they are flying every day. 

[AndrewT]

There probably is not a pressing need to provide your bees with water unless you are in an arid, dry part of the country.  In most other parts of the country, your bees will find (and in most cases prefer) some source of water, be it a pond edge or wet swampy area.

One valid reason for maintaining a good water supply for your bees is if you have them in a populated area and you want to avoid having your bees becoming a nuisance to your neighbors by getting in their pool, birdbath, or air conditioner condensate.

One time, I had set up a kiddie pool for my daughter's turtle to live outside in the summer time.  The pool had started a slow leak on one side and I had to add water every couple of days, unless it rained.  It turned out, the bees mostly liked to get their water from the wet ground next to the leak.  I don't know if it's because it's safer for them to suck the water out of the wet dirt than to drink cleaner water from a pool or tank, or if they like the minerals or something from the dirt.

[ChrisT]

Thanks for all the replies.

Re: Andrew's lazy comment: I did notice that it didnt seem like a huge amount of them were using the water bowl [with rocks in it that they could stand on]. About 10 bees use it every 5 minutes. So I guess they might have found the creek like most of you have said and the rest were just the lazy ones or the ones that forgot to get water while they were out.
There are no nearby water souces like pools or dog bowls so the neighbors shouldnt be bothered.

Re: Michael Bush: My house [city] water does have alot of chlorine in it. I can smell it when i water the yard and plants. But the chlorine would evaporate after a while. So i guess it wouldnt be so odoriferous (?) enough for them to find it by smell once the chlorine is gone. The creek is fed by the city's storm drains mostly. It is an actual creek that starts further up north but the city feed its storm drains to it which casues oil and other chemicals to get in it from road runoff but it is a decent flowing "creek". So, its not sewage but I hope its clean enough for them. I wouldnt rate it horrible but I wouldnt drink from it of course. The local dogs do so if they are ok with it... I would worry about your "cold" comment. As the weather turns colder (and therefore the creek turns colder) where would they get their water from?

Thank you for the help.

[ChrisT]

Sorry forgot to add 1 thing:

One day my bowl had run dry (i was on a trip for 2 days) and when I went out there and discovered this, there were about 8 bees licking the bottom of the dry bowl (for lack of a better description). Does that mean these particular bees were/are not aware of the creek? Why would they lick a dry bowl desperately trying to get water instead of flying down to the creek if they knew the creek was there. This was just about 5 days ago when this happened so well past the first few days after install.

Thanks

[AllenF]

I don't think it matters.  Bees communicate very well where things can be found in the neighborhood.