Make a Bee-Friendly Drinker for Your Garden

While we’ve all been focused on growing bee-friendly habitat in our gardens by planting pollinator-friendly varieties, there’s something else that’s vital to bee health that’s often overlooked: bees need water. In their natural habitat, bees get their water from the ponds, pools, and puddles that naturally occur in the environment, but the average American yard might seem like the Sahara to a bee, with not a drop of water in sight. You can help by installing a bee-friendly water feature, and the bonus is that it’s usually good for hummingbirds too.

Why do bees need water?

Water is an important aspect of bees’ habitat: they drink it and use it to cool the hive, feed young bees, and dilute stored honey. Once the bees find your drinker, they will often tell their friends about it, so keep your drinker still after you set it up to get maximum traffic. In addition to bees, other pollinators such as butterflies and hummingbirds will also appreciate the drinker. Make sure the location you choose is not a favorite spot for predators such as domestic cats, and keep it high or suspended to scare away cats and other hunters.

What is a bee-friendly water feature?

A bee-friendly water system has several key components. It’s cool enough here that they can land without getting hurt, so if it’s in the sun, it should be a light color. It doesn’t have mold, but is otherwise “earthy” rather than fresh from the tap, so the bees can smell it. Bees navigate partly by smell, so adding vegetation or a pinch of salt to the water will help them find it. Finally, a good bee trough will have enough room for the bees to land without getting their wings wet, so adding balls, rocks, twigs, gravel, or other material that can be partially submerged will allow the bees to get to your water.

A regular do-it-yourself bee fountain is just a plate of water with pebbles or flower stones on which the bees can land. The water level should be just below the height of the rocks so that the bees can get to the water without getting wet. A variation on this idea can be implemented by adding some rocks to the birdbath. The advantage of this option is its simplicity, but the disadvantage is that the water can evaporate quickly, resulting in the need for frequent topping up.

Repurpose another garden product

A hummingbird feeder with plain water is a good bee drinker. Since bees recognize water by smell, you should throw in a few grains of salt or a cut blade of grass when you fill the feeder so that the bees recognize it as a source of water. This method will allow you to water your bees for days or weeks without having to refill the water bowl.

You can also use pet drinkers , hanging chicken feeders , or livestock drinkers to water your bees by placing pebbles or rocks in the feeder. Then you just need to fill them with bee-approved water and let the pollinators collect it. The advantage of these systems is that you won’t need to refill them often, but the water level will remain constant so that the bees can land on your pebbles.