There has been considerable work done with bees and chlorinated water which has shown no detrimental effect on bees or their honey stores, quite the opposite. Beekeepers use bleach or chlorine in small doses to add to sugar syrup to make it last longer and not ferment. Also, there is a link in the use of chlorinated water to help bees fight nosema and the control of chalkbrood in the hive.
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What about the bees flying into the pitcher plants? Theyād be goners wouldnāt they or are they smarter than that?
All they care about is the water in the mossšš»
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I am feeling very good knowing most all the open water around here is from rain water build up on open grazing land or are animal water containers. A bit of farming with pivots south of us about 2 miles thoughā¦
Has anyone tried a layer of marbles in a shallow pan?
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I have not tried this, but off the bat i see a couple issues. First it increases surface area so the water will dissipate quicker. Secondly i know with my current system one of the big problems in algae, so you would be constantly washing the marbles. I could be wrong but those are my thoughts.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeswater.htm
Bees need water. One of the issues is providing it. Another is to have it more attractive than the neighborās hot tub. To accomplish this you need to understand that bees are attracted to water because of several things:
o Smell. They can recruit bees to a source that has odor. Chlorine has odor. So does sewage.
o Warmth. Warm water can be taken on even moderately chilly days. Cold water cannot because when the bees get chilled they canāt fly home.
o Reliability. Bees prefer a reliable source.
o Accessibility. Bees need to be able to get to the water without falling in. A horse tank or bucket with no floats does not work well. A creek bank provides such access as they can land on the bank and walk up to the water. A barrel or bucket does not unless you provide ladders or floats or both. I use a bucket of water full of old sticks. The bees can land on the stick and climb down to the water.
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I have a Bird bath that holds about 5 gallons of water and into that i have put a couple large rocks so the bees can land at the edge of the bird bath or they can land on the rocks and then walk to the edge of the water. Seems to work pretty well, during the summer i give it a quick scrub out a few times to help keep algae at bay. Then it is also a matter of keeping it filled during the SC summers. It is located about 10 feet from the entrance to one hive and about 13 feet to the 2nd hive.
the hive stand leg is at the top of the picture, so the bees dont have far to travel, 26 litre tub with a few gold fish in residents to deal with mosquito larvae and a small solar powered pumpā¦i was surprised by how quickly the lilly has grown and flowered
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I have a horse tank (warm all year round from sun or tank heater - itās a floating heater plus Iāll be putting in something to float this year) nearby, a goose pond and several watering pails all very close. But then again we have animals on our 70 acres. I know in past years Iād find bees sitting around the water drinking and whenever I found one lost in the water Iād pull him out. I didnāt see those bees this last year though 
so Iām not sure what happened to them.
I should think of something to put in the watering pails in case the bees go there (guess some old barn wood would do).
As long is there is some access to water where they wonāt drown (a creek where they can land and sneak up to wet dirt, etc.) within a few hundred yards and as long as there are not sources that will become an attractive nuisance (hot tubs, swimming pools etc.) you wonāt really need to worry about watering them.
Ok well the goose pond (changed a few times a week) should be a safe place along with the horse tank (only 1 old horse that isnāt usually around it). Sadly there arenāt any creeks for a few miles
The horse tank wonāt work because they will drown. They need to be able
to sneak up on the water without falling in. For the horseās sake I
wouldnāt put boards in the horse tank because that WOULD give them a
landing spot. The goose pond should work fine if there is a dirt bank
they can suck water out of near the water or a nice slope down to the
water. If not, a few boards would do. But is the āgoose pondā small?
You donāt want the geese getting pestered by the beesā¦
Michael
The pond is surrounded by dirt and rocks with lots of little areas for small frogs and others to get water. In previous years (when we had them - I didnāt see any/many last year) the local honeybees loved it and the geese didnāt care or seem to bother with them.
Ok good to know about the horse tank. The pond itself is just about 75 or 100ft from where Iām hoping to put the hive.
I use an automated horse waterer. The kind that fits in a stall on the wall. It has a powder coat so it does not rust. I have a hose line attached to it so it runs up the hill behind my house where the hives are. I hammered it into the side of a tree so it is off the ground and not a temptation to land critters. The float is behind a flap so the incoming spray does not drown the bees if they are drinking when it tops off. I fill the front bowl part (not the inner float side) with marbles so the bees have landing places. Rocks would work fine too. The marbles/rocks are kept away from the float by the flap so they do not jam it up. This small surface area cuts down on evaporation but continually refills. It is a reliable and accessible source, without me having to remember to tote water in California drought weather. It can be cleaned easily by scooping two swipes of marbles out and splashing out the murky water so fresh flows in and then replacing the marbles. I donāt have to do it very often though. I donāt have problems with bees at the neighborhood yard taps or pools this way. No one even knows they are up there in an urban Los Angeles neighborhood.
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Cool idea. Water is valuable around our place as our only well is 220ft down and some of our lines are very old, so this might be a cool addition once we replace a few hydrants and I could tap the line for other water locations. Diffidently seems like a good idea. For now we change the water in the goose pond a few times a week to keep algae from growing it in (I do NOT like to use any tablets to keep algae out as I am afraid of what it does to the water for the animals). Nearest lake is just about 2.7 miles south of us and a stream is going to be about 3.8 miles south of us. The lake has water year round, but Iād bet they prefer my local water of that distance of travel.
Mosquitoes and water source
This past week I looked at my Bās water source and noticed what I believe are a lot of mosquito larvae in it. With West Nile and now Zika, a little concern. Additionally I do know Dallas sprays occasionally at night for mosquitoes. We get full warning, but I donāt believe we have any way to stop them.
- Is there a way to protect your Bee
- Is there a way to keep mosquitoes breeding in the Beeās water source, concerned anything I do or harm the bees
- With all the lawn watering, do I really need to keep my water source right now? I havenāt noticed any bees on their water source for a few weeks now. Thatās not to say theyāre not using it though
If you know there is spraying, you may choose to shut your bees in the hive for a day. I do this using #8 hardware cloth over the hive entrance.
As mosquitoes prefer stagnant (non-moving) water, I suppose you could try setting up a small water feature such as a fountain or a waterfall. The other option is have fish in a pond, if they are likely to eat the larvae. In the UK, we used to keep newts in our pond - they are voracious hunters and love mosquito larvae! 
Canāt do that here though, so I just put bleach in the water we set out for our bees - one teaspoon per gallon. Havenāt seen any mozzies yet, but who knowsā¦
I canāt speak for your area, but I would guess that water available from landscaping is minimal and soaks into the ground rapidly. Also, my City regulations require that we provide a water source for bees in the apiary, so that they donāt have so much incentive to use the neighboring swimming pools and hot tubs.
Coincidentally, @Cowgirl & I were just discussing mosquito control in bee water containers. She looked it up & found that those mosquito dunks people use for ornamental ponds are safe for bees.
My bees have been able to get water from my veggie garden, which their hive is just behind - they fly down into leaf folds & sip water collected in there, and as @Michael_Bush points out they can also sip it from moist surfaces like the wood chips outside my raised beds.
Itās getting a lot hotter here now, so I also put out a galvanized pail with a slightly smaller terra cotta pot inside. The lip of the pot is wide & flat so the bees can land on it & drink from either side.
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My bees get a polypropylene storage box with a polystyrene foam lid. Hole in the middle of the lid with a little solar powered fountain pump under the water. Three china saucers full of stones provide the water and access.
Bees from hives predating this water supply go somewhere else. Bees from hives installed later use the supply I built.
Itās seriously ugly so Iām not including a pic. I do have a recycled 60L stainless steel washtub to replace the plastic at sometime. It will be going in exactly the same place. Evidently a bee colony āremembersā the location of the water supply and passes the info to new workers.
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