Do bees need water?
It should come as no surprise that bees, like us, need water to survive.
Besides drinking, there are three main reasons honey bees need water. These are:
To regulate the temperature inside the hive.
To thin honey when it’s crystallized.
Feeding baby bees
We can do our part to help ensure local bees have fresh water nearby with a simple DIY project!
But first, let’s talk about those three reasons bees need water.
For regulating the hive temperature:
Honey bees like to keep their hives at 32-36 degrees Celsius. This heat is their sweet spot. Keeping the temperature regulated in the summer months is super important to ensure healthy brood (Unsure what brood is? Check this out for a quick explanation!) Hotter temperatures can prevent brood from completing their growth process, stopping them from becoming productive worker bees.
For this reason, some of the forager bees will specialize in water collection. When they leave the hive and find a quality water source, they will use their proboscis (that thing that looks like a straw!) to slurp up some of the liquid, and they’ll store it in their stomach to take back to the hive.
Once back to the hive, the water will be spread on the edges of brood comb, and the bees will fan it with their wings. This basically serves to air-condition the hive to ensure the right temperature raising baby bees. Yes, bees create their own air conditioning. They’re so smart!
For thinning honey:
Later on in the winter, honey bees use water to thin crystallized honey. Bees need a large amount of honey to get through the winter and to continue heating the cluster and protecting the queen. If they don’t have enough honey for the winter they can starve - water can help prevent this starvation.
For feeding baby bees:
Nurse bees feed developing larvae (aka baby bees) a diet of pollen, nectar, royal jelly for those larvae chosen to become future queens, and water. The larvae diet can be up to 80% water on the first day! They need that h20!
So, how can you help bees when it comes to water? Make Your Bees a Watering Station!
Bees can find their own source of water like a river or pond - however, not all beehives are near a natural source of water. In these cases, bees will look for water elsewhere. This is where we can help!
This project is super simple and can be done a number of ways! It’s a great project to do with kids, and they can easily maintain the watering station fostering a care and responsibility for our bees.
My watering station is made using a poultry feeder, and some rocks around the bottom. So simple!
You don’t need a poultry feeder though! You can make a very simple watering station in many different ways. The key thing to remember is it’s important to give them a safe place to stand. Water in a steep-sided container or water that flows quickly is dangerous to a bee because they can easily drown.
Here are some simple ways to create your water station, without a poultry feeder.
Making a bird bath bee friendly: add some rocks for them to stand on!
Fill a hummingbird feeder with water instead of sugar water.
Add glass pebbles or marbles to a shallow container.
Put rocks in a self-filling water bowl typically used for pets.
If you make a bee watering station, I’d love to see! Take a photo and tag me on Facebook or on Instagram. We can all engage in and promote actions that will protect our bees and help them to thrive. Follow Wiz Bee Honey to learn more ways you can help.