Water Sources

[JoanneMarie]

Hi,

This April I put out a white plastic bucket with wine corks floating in it.  I "baited" it with some lemon grass oil and bridge comb on the handle with a little honey.  The bees found it right away and seemed very happy.  My motivation was to give them an alternative to the vanishing edge of my swimming pool.  Last year that was their water source of choice, but lots of bees drown when we were splashing in the pool and sent a wave of water suddenly over the edge.  Also a couple of folks got stung.  Last week, for some reason, they quit using the bucket.  They are not on the vanishing edge or the soaker hose I have out.  I don't know where they are getting their water and wonder what would cause them to abandon a water source they were using?

Joanne

[brooklynbees]

Well, its been so rainy here in NYC the last few weeks the girls don't have to go too far to get to standing water. Its sitting right on their roof. :(

If you don't want to use Mosquito dunks, how about a couple of goldfish or cheap feeder fish like guppies in the bucket -- if its a 5 gallon bucket it could hold 2 small goldfish without a problem. As long as the water isn't standing in the open sun all day it shouldn't get too warm and the O2 level should be ok for the fish. They will eat the larvae. I have two goldfish in the (very) small water pond in the back yard and it works well. The birdfeeder gets dumped bi-weekly or the larvae get too numerous. The girls like to visit both.