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Author Topic: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?  (Read 16466 times)

Offline allisono

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Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« on: July 05, 2011, 10:38:45 am »
Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone has ever had their neighbor's livestock?  I have two hives who are doing well and my neighbor came to me this morning saying my honey bees have been for the last 2 weeks around her horse trough.  She has an automatic waterer and I think it leaks just enough (around the pvc pipe/connections) to attract my bees.  I didn't know they were doing this until now and she and one of her boarders thought it was wasps at first (they even hit some of my bees with wasp spray :( ), until another boarder pointed out it was honey bees, so she then knew who to see, i.e. me!  One of her horses she thinks has some bites under his belly area from them, which surprises me as the bees have never given my horses/goats any problems.

I think the bees prefer the fresh water as opposed to the source I have for them.  So, my boyfriend and I were thinking of what would be the best option to lure our bees back to drinking at our house.  We are having the neighbor shut off her automatic waterer for awhile to get the bees to leave.  We were thinking of putting a piece of PVC pipe (with really small holes) up the side of one of our fence posts and connected to a hose so we could get a constant (trickling) source of "fresh" water for the bees.  Or maybe a fountain?  Anyone have any better recommendations?

Thanks in advance,
Allison

Offline JP

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2011, 10:57:59 am »
You can try just about anything/everything and the bees may still visit your neighbor's trough.

Good luck!


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Offline allisono

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2011, 11:33:48 am »
That's what I am worried about JP, lol.  They seem to really be attracked to lightly running water, i.e. they also get on my spickets in the pasture in addition to hers (both the automatic waterer and the pvc pipe, etc.).  They don't seem to get down in the troughs because they are metal/slick, so they are hanging out on the actual pvc connections, hoses, and anywhere it drips.  I'm trying to help nip the problem in the but so I don't have more of my bees hit with wasp killer, not to mention a ticked off neighbor because her horse has a bunch of bites :(

Offline fish_stix

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2011, 11:46:17 am »
I have a large yard with 150 hives in a pasture with 5 horses and 15 cows and all the animals graze right around the pallets of bees, no problems. If they stick their nose up close to the entrance they get stung, and they do some jumping around for a few minutes. They learn fast! If the neighbors horses were getting stung at the water trough they would be very wary of going near there. Bites on a horses belly can come from numerous critters, fleas, ticks, mites, horseflies and on and on. Bee stings on a horse or cow are invariably around the nose, eyes and mouth. When you set up your "bee trickler" let it run onto the ground so it makes a small muddy area; the bees will gather water and minerals from the damp area and you may be able to draw them away from the horse trough. Also try sprinkling a little sea salt or mineral salt (from a cow or deer licking block) on the damp area.

Offline allisono

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2011, 11:52:10 am »
Thansk fish stixs :)  I was also wondering if it wasn't something else given the locations of the bites (she said he even has a few on his male organ)...  I asked her to check the horse to see if she sees any stingers also left behind...  I have not had any problems with my horses or goats and the bees.  The dog got a good couple of stings and learned his lesson and stays away from the hives...

Allison

Offline G3farms

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #5 on: July 05, 2011, 02:14:59 pm »
honeybees will  not "bite" the sting, our neighbor is just grabbing at straws.

How do you know the are your bees anyway?

those hot bees will have you steppin and a fetchin like your heads on fire and your keister is a catchin!!!

Bees will be bees and do as they please!

Offline bee-nuts

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #6 on: July 05, 2011, 02:17:52 pm »
Those bites are horse fly's, not bees, the bees and horses will enjoy that water together with no problems.  The problem is the horse owner who is over reacting.  When younger I used to watch the cows and horses drink from an automatic water feeder and I was stunned that the cows and horsed paid no attention to all the honeybees in there.  I have cows that follow me like dogs to one of my yards and graze grass around my fence as they watch me work the bees.  They dont get stung enough to chase them off there, the bees sure aint going to cause any problems at a water source.

Tell the neighbor to watch when the horses are drinking.  If they are snorting and shivering, its cause the bees tickle their nose etc. and its habit trying to get flys off, the bees aint stinging anyone or anything.  The horses are defenseless on there belly to the horse fly's unless they roll around.

Yes they may take a sting once in a while when they squish one.  You wont get those bees to stop using that water source.  
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Offline BlueBee

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #7 on: July 05, 2011, 02:45:39 pm »
For whatever reason, bees seem attracted to wet peat moss.  I notice when I bring home potted plants and water them.  Bees love to get in there and sip water out of the potting mix.  The more peat in there, the more they love them.  I’ve set up a flat full of peat moss and I’m using some 1 gph water drippers to keep it wet.  That setup attracts my bees while dripping water on a log right in front of the hives did not.  Go figure.  Another benefit of the wet peat; they can’t drown.

I set up my drippers/peat under a tree and simply let it run day and night.  The water that drips out the bottom of the flat of peat helps keep the tree watered.  A win, win, situation without wasting much water.

I also use foam over my hives in the summer to keep hundreds of un needed watts of heat out of my hives in the summer sun.  Summer sun is around 100 watts per sq foot surface area. 

Bees use water for evaporative cooling in the hive as we’ll as for raising brood.  How much water is needed for cooling vs drinking, I don’t know.

Offline kingbee

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #8 on: July 07, 2011, 01:39:35 am »
... my neighbor came

to me this morning saying my honey bees have  been for the last 2 weeks around her horse trough... One of

her horses she thinks has some bites under his belly area...

Note: the word "near" is a relitive term and varies with each hive and every bee.

Bees are only defensive while protecting their hives.  When not near its hive the only reason for a bee to sting is if she is attacked or mashed.

The waterfall at my neighbors coy pond has a thick layer of moss growing on the rocks.  On hot days this mosey area is covered with what can only bee my bees.  Even though the neighbor's coy pond is within 20 feet of their patio the neighbors have so far failed to noticed my bees partaking of the water in their moss.  Now to be fair this is a two way street since their coy fish eat my more intrepid or foolish bees, those who light on the lily pads in the fish pond and sip water to close to the edge.   Dang, I keep forgetting to call the neighbors attention to the bees on the water fall.  But they did apologize profusely for the loss of my Kamikaze bees.  Such is life. :-D


Offline L Daxon

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #9 on: July 07, 2011, 11:48:33 pm »
Luckily I live on a lake and don't have to worry about watering my bees, or the bees bothering my neighbors. 

I have read on other threads that if you set up a watering place between your hives and your neighbor's trough, you could add a little extra attractrant, like Honey B Healthy, chlorine, etc. to get the bees trained to go to your watering hole and not the neighbor's.  There are also gadgets you can set in a bird bath that keeps the water churning and fresher.  So you could just set up a bird bath between your hives and the horse trough with one of these flowing water devices and add a little bee attractrant to it periodically to train to your bees to use your water supply first.  Once they are trained to use your spot, you could probably stop adding the HBH, etc.

This may not keep bees from the neighbor's trough entirely, but even if you got rid of your hives, there could still be bees at the troughs.  Then who is he/she going to blame?
linda d

Offline annette

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #10 on: July 08, 2011, 01:04:10 am »
I have just posted something recently about this. I just lured my bees to a soaker hose by spraying with sugar syrup and sprinkling a few drops of lemongrass oil onto the soaker hose. It worked for me and for my friend Joanne who is a beekeeper.

Annette

Offline allisono

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #11 on: July 18, 2011, 02:13:16 pm »
Thanks all, I appreciate the advice :)  My neighbor just spoke with my boyfriend a couple of days ago and more problems.  She says the bees have stung at least 4 horses and now her grandaughter.  We now have our own little waterer set-up, 50 gallon drug cut down with peat moss and a 1 gallon/hr. dripper to try to get them back towards our yard.  Trying to calm the situation though, since I think they are my bees and I don't want them killed by wasp killer every day!  I fail to believe that the bees are stinging the horses and people though, my guess is it is something else...

Offline allisono

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #12 on: July 18, 2011, 02:15:11 pm »
Annette,

How far from the hive did you set-up your lure?

Thanks in advance,

Allison

Offline Kathyp

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #13 on: July 18, 2011, 02:26:42 pm »
i suspect your neighbor is full of crap.  i have bees right next to my horses and they love the mud around the  horse trough.  the horses graze right in the bees flight path and are never bothered.  your neighbors horses are either being bitten by mosquitoes, bots, or horse flies.

where are you??  your location would help.

is your neighbor new to horses?  she doesn't seem to know much about the pests that bother them. 

put out as water source and do as annette suggests.  bait it with some sugar. 
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline allisono

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #14 on: July 18, 2011, 03:45:54 pm »
Hi kathyp,

I am in Gainesville, FL.  The bees are much closer to my horses, goats, chickens, etc. then they are to her horses and they never bother my animals (though they aren't interested in my water bins like they are her's, but I think that's the automatic waterer).  I think it's definitely an over reaction, but I am trying to keep the peace too!  She has always been a good neighbor to me, even saved my goat herd from a pit bull attack a few weeks back...  That being said I think she did some reading on-line and that's probably fueled the fire, i.e. a lot of people give commentary to things they fear/don't understand on-line...  If I could get her to just understand that if she cuts the automatic waterer it would drive them elsewhere, but she only cut it for a few days (the bees left!) and then turned it on again :(  A few days won't help get my bees re-trained, lol...

Thanks,

Allison 

Offline Kathyp

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #15 on: July 18, 2011, 04:26:35 pm »
go into your profile and put your location or those of us with short and cluttered memories will have to keep asking you  ;)

the bees will keep going back to the source they like if it's not dried up for a couple of weeks, and forced to another source.  my bees are especially attracted to the mud around the salt block.  i don't care.  it doesn't bother the horses.

problem is, with those uneducated about bees and horses, if she sees bees and sees something bothering her horses, she will assume that it's the bees.  there is no way to change her mind if she chooses to remain uneducated.  from a distance bees and bots look much alike.  they fly the same and buzz.  the difference is that bots will set the horses to running and will not let up.  bees don't care about the horses.

http://www.google.com/search?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&biw=1344&bih=705&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=horse+bot+fly&oq=horse+bot&aq=0&aqi=g6&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=968l4567l0l6506l11l11l1l0l0l0l273l2146l0.3.7l10

tell her to look for bot eggs

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.horseswithamie.com/images/BotFlyEggs6.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.horseswithamie.com/horsehealth/botfly.html&usg=__iiTHAOjHWFln0tvaWfw8ZTKIKBU=&h=380&w=350&sz=72&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=_RHi9iKZvCCAXM:&tbnh=131&tbnw=116&ei=w4gkTq7JJaPZiALP4eXHAw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhorse%2Bbot%2Bfly%2Beggs%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1344%26bih%3D705%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=590&vpy=222&dur=242&hovh=234&hovw=215&tx=116&ty=120&page=1&ndsp=26&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0&biw=1344&bih=705
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline BlueBee

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #16 on: July 18, 2011, 05:03:55 pm »
Allison, I hope the 1gph dripper into peat moss setup works for you.  It’s worked great for me.  I have my setup about 15 feet from the hives under an apple tree.  My flat of peat is about 2’ off the ground.  The excess water from the setup drips on the ground and makes a little puddle of mud under the apple tree.  99% of the bees ignore the mudd and go for the peat.  (The yellow jackets go for the mudd).  There must be some odor with the peat that they sense?  There is a big pool 70 feet from the hives, not a single bee in the pool.   If they’re slow learning where the peat watering system is, I would follow Kathy’s advice and bait it with some sugar.  95F here yesterday; lots of bees in the peat, non stop all day long.  Good luck. 
 

Offline rober

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #17 on: July 18, 2011, 08:22:45 pm »
 i had the same problem recently with a neighbor's bird bath. there were a lot of bees at her bird bath. she agreed to not fill it for a couple weeks & i added 2 more water sources. it stopped MOST of the bees from going to her birdbath, a few do still  go there. i noticed she added another water source in the corner of her yard on my property line. i have to  say she has been very understanding. like some others have said check the horses for bot-fly eggs. if the horses were indeed stung by bees it would be on their face. on the girl, was there a stinger. lot's of stinging critters are attracted to water.

Offline annette

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #18 on: July 19, 2011, 12:02:41 am »
Annette,

How far from the hive did you set-up your lure?

Thanks in advance,

Allison

The soaker hose is about 20 feet from the hive.

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Bees bothering neighbor's horses and water trough?
« Reply #19 on: July 19, 2011, 04:47:59 am »
Water
Bees need water. One of the issues is providing it. Another is to have it more attractive than the neighbor’s  horse trough. To accomplish this you need to understand that bees are attracted to water because of several things:
•   Smell. They can recruit bees to a source that has odor. Chlorine has odor. So does sewage.
•   Warmth. Warm water can be taken on even mod-erately chilly days. Cold water cannot because when the bees get chilled they can’t fly home.
•   Reliability. Bees prefer a reliable source.
•   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.

As far as bothering the horses, I have horses in the pasture with my bees.  Yes, sometimes the horses get to grazing right in front of the hives and sometimes a hive is grouchy and doesn't like it, and they get stung.  I'm sure that sometimes the bees are looking for sweat and the horse things they are a fly and swats them... but all in all they don't bother them.
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