Today, as I prepared to get the lawn mower out, I noticed a significant number of water foragers around a rain puddle in front of my tractor barn. I changed my plans and posted the water foraging activity at: Honey Bee Water Foragers. It was bee biology in motion. I’ll mow later.
I am blessed with natural water sources for the bees. I also see them on the mineral blocks after a rain.
I don’t have a natural water source on my land, so I use 5 gallon chicken waterers with pea gravel so they don’t drown. About once a week I fill ’em up. Beats getting a call from the neighbors about bees in their pool. Can’t think of a better reason to put off mowin’. Plenty of equal ones, but none better.
Nice video, thanks for posting it Dr. Tew. The bees *do* seem to pick some somewhat “lovely” pools to drink from, don’t they? 😉
Here is a shot I took of one coming to an old deserted pool nearby. They use the duckweed to light on and draw water from between the duckweed leaves. Note the locals hanging out on the duckweed leaves with the bee.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n153/intheswamp00/Honey%20Bees/hb_20120531_5791cropped3.jpg