Use several types of water feeders, the dog dish with water bottle attached, the clay pan from lowes (hardware store) and if that not enough leave a hose dripping- loosen the bonnet nut on hose bib shut off to drip…drip and they find what they need. 111 113 103 106 degrees in Riverside Co and City.
I’ve got a bird bath, but also a 5 gallon chicken waterer with marbles in the trough so they don’t drown. To keep the water moving in the waterer, I got a little solar powered air pump with an airstone. It doesn’t bubble at night, but it works all day and the bees seem to like drinking near it.
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Interesting topic! I live in an area with several neighbors with pool and I didn’t want my bees bothering them, so I set up a large dog bowl next to my hive and I floated a bunch of cedar off-cuts in it. I also heard bees like odor and minerals, so I added a pinch of salt and a couple drops of lemon grass oil in the water. Result? The bees seem to love it! Rarely do I go to look at my hive and see less than a dozen bees hanging out on the cedar blocks in the dog bowl. I haven’t added any more salt or lemongrass oil, I just top it up with more water when it gets low, a couple of bees have drowned in the bowl but it’s like 2 a month so I don’t worry about it. The water is pretty brown from the cedar and it’s also getting a bit green and sludgy now, but that only seems to make the bees like it more. Anyway, as with everything bee-related this is just what works for me, but a dog bowl with cedar floating in it seems like a great bee water source for my bees so maybe it’ll work for yours too, and it sure is easy to maintain. 
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Really enjoy your re purposing of industrial hard waste.
I want one, very beautiful, seriously can you make an extra ship it to me how much
I would hate to think of the cost @Martydallas fairly heavy! I do come buy them fairly often though.
After we replaced a string of insulators they were taken to our salvage yard with all of the rest of our old bolts, wire and connectors. The material was sorted and recycled, tossed or sold. Customers could buy the untreated part of the old poles, wire scraps and some bought a few old insulators for decoration. McFoxdale is right, a “string of 5 bells” is pretty heavy. You might try your local utility or chat with a crew working on the lines in your area. They could direct you in the right direction on where to find an old string of Bells.
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Any way you can send me some photographs of the individual pieces and parts up close and if it’s okay I’d like to try to make one i.e. copy it
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Going in to sign my retirement paperwork on thursday…could take a few pictures then.
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I’ve got a number of partially buried pots around the garden with different water (frog friendly; yes, I’ve got a couple that appear to live in the garden) plants. The pots all have bleed lines off the garden drip line to ensure they always remain full with the least amount of effort. The pot+plant combinations that seem to give me the most problem with algae blooms are those that are identified as ‘oxygenators’. Generally the plants are native water plants, except for two of the pots which grow kai lan.
Most of the plants in the garden are Australian natives. There are some berries, vines and fruit trees that aren’t but most other things have been specifically chosen and planted to ensure nectar/pollen all year around through all seasons. A number were also specifically chosen because they are known to attract (native) bees.
@Eva and @Cowgirl, one advantage of having the pots connected to the garden drip line is that I can ensure they overflow. I’ve found this generally helps control mosquitos and other waterborne pests. I did have small catfish in a few of the pots last year but none survived the end of summer (water either got too cold come winter or they were eaten by the birds that frequent them)
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You have a beautiful garden SnowflakeHoney, and it looks very much like you grow it all on the Perth sand.
Thanks…and it sure does all grow in Perth sand. Being mainly native plants, and mostly local natives at that, helps.
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What an interesting idea, basically a variant of a Japanese rain chain.
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I bought a dozen very cheap water bottle attachment bee feeder things- basically you can attach any standard bottle to them and then you can poke the feeder part in through the entrance. They work well for periodic feeding: but lately I have been filling the bottles with water and the bees love it! they can drink right at the hive entrance- there are always bees there drinking:
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This is an awesome idea Semaphore… I would like to try this for my hive.
The clear glass insulators look great with a row of LEDS around the outside groove.
I’ve a similar water feeder to semaphore’s. I installed it after our neighnours dog was stung a few times at it’s water bowl and the kids were ducking for cover in our inflatable pool. Not had a problem with either since.
They go through about 250mL on really hot days though! I’m thinking about creating a larger version so it doesnt run out as quickly.
Saw the blue sparkles of insulators tracking over for real during a storm in 89 or 90 that blew freezing salt water off Puget Sound that coated the poles and lines. It was beautiful…and frightening. Spent Christmas Eve into Christmas morning changing out insulators until another crew took over.
I currently have a little pond in my front yard (hives are in the back yard) that the girls like to drink from. I like what @SnowflakeHoney did with some raised containers and will try to fit some watering areas like that into my landscape this spring. Our winter seems to be a little colder for a little longer than normal this year so I will need to incorporate some way to heat the container to keep it from freezing so the plants don’t die.
Fun to see that there are a lot of Linemen on the forum from all over the world. Couldn’t believe how many people that I worked with had bee hives in their back yards until I started to chat with customers that had bee hives in their yards. They have all helped me out this first year.
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