Bees and water...?

[Sniper338]

Why do all my bees like to drink water from the dog bowl instead of the water troughs or little gold fish pond?

Is it the cleaner water factor?  Or is it there is never ripples in the dog dish where as the troughs and ponds ripple a little when the wind blows?

Theres 25+ bees always in the dog bowl, and havent seen one at the water troughs or pond...

Just curious, interesting to watch the behaviors..

[Oldbeavo]

What color is the dog bowl?

[A37]

My bees last year preferred the lake with the small gravel on the shore over the small pool with sticks I gave them.

[Sniper338]

Dog bowl is black rubber..

Trough is galvanized

Pond is black plastic liner deal..

[Michael Bush]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeswater.htm

[kanga]

Interesting reading re bees & water:

http://www.beeculture.com/catch-buzz-providing-additional-source-minerals-might-just-thing-honey-bees/

I wonder what minerals are in the dogs water?

[bwallace23350]

My bees just use a 14 acre pond about a 1/4 mile from them or either the creek down the hill. I am not really sure where they go for water.

[Dangermouse01]

Probably the same reason when my dog is outside he seems to prefer the water in the trays under the flower pots, the bird baths, the rain buckets......anything other than his water bowls.

[tjc1]

Probably the same reason when my dog is outside he seems to prefer the water in the trays under the flower pots, the bird baths, the rain buckets......anything other than his water bowls.

I'm guessing because his bowl is full of thirsty bees...;)

[Michael Bush]

My horses' preferences for water are a mystery to me... so I guess it should not be a surprise that bees are somewhat unpredictable as well.  My horses have a tank with water, and a waterer.   They almost never use the waterer, which would be clean cold water, and instead drink the dirty water from the tank.  In the winter I have always suspected it was because the tank water was warm where the waterer was cold, but in the summer they also drink it from the tank...

[Captain776]

Do you provide water and or syrup all year?
I have only had bees since April 7.
I tried a few other methods to try to provide water but didn't seem the bees were interested.
Then I put in a plastic top feeder and filled the small side with syrup made with raw sugar.
4-6 hrs later, I peeked inside and it was empty.
6:30 at night I refilled it and put about 1/2" in the larger side, then this morning it was dry again.
Because of where I live, there us always something blooming, right now there is a tree blooming, these trees are 20-40 feet tall and the entire tree turns to little purple flowers and they are everywhere plus we have many things flowering now.
The bees are returning with pollen sacs packed but I wanted to be sure they had water, there us a lot of water very close by, small streams, huge pond.

Should I continue gang them syrup every day?
Do you ever give them just plain water?

Thanks

[paus]

Captain, I had the opportunity to buy some raw sugar at a very reasonable price, I quickly learned from these Beemaster followers DO NOT FEED RAW SUGAR.  IT GIVES THE BEES DYSENTARY.

[BeeMaster2]

Captian,
If your bees have a good flow on, I would not feed them. Usually when there is a flow on they will ignore the sugar water. That being said, I feed in the early spring to build up the hives for our main spring flow. A couple of hives will empty a quart in 2 days and several others will not touch the sugar water. Try just putting water in the hive for one day and see what happens.
Jim

[Captain776]

Thanks,
I will switch to plain water and see how that goes.
When I go to the hive today, I will see if I see signs of dysentery.
All sugar is brown until bleached with Sulphuric Dioxide.
Raw sugar still has Molasses in it that is why it is brown.
But Brown Sugar is made by using white sugar and adding molasses back into it.

Bruce

[Oldbeavo]

Sniper
Read Bushies article, bees prefer warmer water so the little black dog bowl will be the warmest option.

[Captain776]

Yesterday before posting, I had filled both sides of the plastic top feeder with syrup from raw sugar and this morning both sides were dry.
Today I filled the small section with just room temperature water, no sugar in it.
See what it looks like tomorrow.

Bruce