Ode to Bees on a Summer Breeze
Bees get thirsty too
Just like me and you
Give a bee a heartfelt gift
Make a bee bath to give her a lift
Making a bee bath is easy and fun
For thirsty bees in that hot summer sun
For a simple way to help the bees
Just put some stones or sticks or leaves
In a shallow pan or pretty glass dish if you please
Or a bowl held by garden fairies Emma and Louise
And as tree leaves dance on the afternoon breeze
Enjoy a cool glass of tea as you watch honeybees
Drinking cool water as they wiggle and dip
Standing firm on little stones taking sip after sip
As they buzz away to your garden flowers with glee
They will thankfully make you a gift of golden honey
Ode to Bees on a Summer Breeze Copyright 2019 Beemission.com. All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to quote Ode to Bees on a Summer Breeze one time only when this full copyright notice is included in the quote.
Bee Baths for Happy Bees
Bees drink water to survive. Just like you and me, your dog and cat.
Water is vital for many other lesser known processes in the bee world, too.
In summer a colony of bees needs a minimum of a quart (liter) of fresh water every day. When it gets very warm, they may need as much as a gallon (4 quarts or liters) back at the hive. This water is usually transported by the colony foragers.
If bees reside in your garden or visit your colorful flowers on a regular basis, it is a kind thing to do to provide them with a clean water source. It makes their lives easier and keeps them from having to fly away to search for water elsewhere.
A bee is attracted to scented water, and not always pleasant odors. Help Miss Bee find your water by adding a drop or two of a flower aroma such as lemon, lime or orange essential oil. Almost any flowering aroma will do. She will mark the water source with her Nasonov pheromone so other bees can find it as well.
Bees get to know where to find water, so if you are seriously engaged in supporting bees, plan ahead if you are going away on a trip. Make sure their source of water keeps flowing in your absence.
A bee is far safer with a clean fresh water supply you intentionally set for her than if she wanders off to drink chlorinated pool water at the house down the street or if she gets swatted for trying to drink water from your neighbor's dog bowl. Or worse, she might fall in and drown.
What do bees use water for besides drinking it?
Cooling the hive and regulating hive temperature~
Diluting honey before feeding it to their young larvae~
Returning crystallized honey to a liquid state~
Bee creative! You can leave a faucet on a very slow drip into a bucket below, set a pail out with corks or floating leaves, or purchase a pretty garden bird bath fountain that auto-replenishes if you don't want to have to focus on it daily. A simple pet water bowl works equally as well.
What you don’t want is mosquitoes. If you leave water sitting for days, you may breed mosquitoes unintentionally. Dump the water out regularly and replenish it.
Just a few pretty flowers in your garden or on your patio, and a constant fresh water supply, and you can count yourself a bee lover who is also making a conscious impact on the lives of our precious pollinators. All for the love of bees.
