Thirsty bee

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Thirsty bee

March 28, 2017 by Mike Powell

Do bees drink water? As I was investigating the ponds at Green Spring Gardens again yesterday for signs of dragonflies, I spotted some bees landing in the shallow water. It looked like they were getting drinks of water, but I wondered if it was possible that they were somehow gathering nectar and/or pollen.

I did a little research and found out that bees do in fact drink water. One article at honeybeesuite.com described some of the reasons why bees bring water back to the hive. It also noted that, “Bees seem to prefer water that has some growth in it—such as green slime—rather than perfectly clean water.” and speculated that the bees can smell the growth and recognize it as a water source. That was certainly the case at the pond yesterday, where the water had all kinds of green gunk growing on it.

Posted in Bees, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, bee, Canon 50D, green spring gardens, honey bee, Tamron 180mm | 11 Comments

11 Responses

on March 28, 2017 at 8:23 am | Reply Katherine Wikoff

Very interesting to learn! I wonder if other insects drink water, too?
- on March 29, 2017 at 4:11 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  I think that some others do drink water, though I suspect that many get enough water from the food they eat.
on March 28, 2017 at 8:53 am | Reply mvschulze

Beutiful Picture. M 🙂
- on March 29, 2017 at 4:10 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks.
on March 28, 2017 at 9:10 am | Reply Dan Antion

Wow! That’s a great macro shot, Mike. I enlarged that and zoomed in. I think I can count his freckles 🙂
- on March 29, 2017 at 4:10 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Dan. I was fortunate to be in a pretty good position to get this shot. I love shooting with my 180mm macro, though sometimes it’s a challenge to keep it steady enough to get shots like this (and the lens has no built-in image stabilization.
on March 28, 2017 at 2:29 pm | Reply Laura (PA Pict)

What an amazing photograph. The detail is tack sharp. I had never wondered about bees drinking water so you have educated me today.
- on March 29, 2017 at 4:07 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Laura. I am always curious about the things that I observe and it’s fun trying to figure out what is going on.
on March 29, 2017 at 2:19 pm | Reply shoreacres

One of the things that the wildscapes people emphasize is the need for shallow water in gardens, specifically for bees. A plant saucer filled with some pebbles and shallow water is best, because they can drown. If they can’t find other sources, they’ll try swimming pools and such, and it doesn’t always work out so well.
on April 24, 2017 at 11:46 am | Reply apisgarden

It might be noted that bees LOVE chlorinated water, and because of that , you often see them handing out at the local pool 🙂
- on April 24, 2017 at 4:08 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  I guess that I haven’t visited any outdoor pools recently or I probably would have noticed. 🙂