Lessons in Bees: The Tid-Bits that Make a Difference

I read that I should provide a source of water for my bees.  So I cleaned out a bird bath and put it next to the hive.  When I observed them I noticed they never drank from the bath.  Instead they drank from puddles in the mud near the plants I was growing. 

I began to wonder why they shunned the clean water I was providing.  At first I thought the bees were drowning in the bird bath.  This prompted me to put stones with a gradual slope in the bird bath so the bees could easily get to the water without drowning.

 

 

But they still preferred the water from puddles after it rained.  This became problematic when we experienced drought in the middle of this summer.  The soil was parched and there was no rain in sight.

Then I talked to a local bee expert, Ken Warchol, who has been keeping bees since he was 5 years old (he is now over well over 50).  Ken informed me that the bees prefer the minerals in water puddled up above the soil. He recommended I put dirt in the bird bath with the water.