Yes, native bees need water, especially in hot, dry weather, as it's crucial for hydration and cooling their nests, but they often get it from plant dew, nectar, or soil moisture; providing shallow water sources with landing spots (like pebbles in a dish) is helpful to prevent drowning and encourage them to use safe spots instead of pools or drips.
' They are often seen drinking from muddy puddles, stagnant pools, and even rainwater containers filled with algae. Contrary to human preferences for crystal-clear water, bees are drawn to these seemingly unappealing sources because they provide essential nutrients.
Many native bees rely on very specific plants or nesting sites – so when these disappear, it can be hard for them to survive and reproduce.
The "3 feet, 3 miles rule" is a beekeeping guideline for moving hives: move them less than 3 feet (so they find the new spot easily using landmarks and scent) or more than 3 miles (so they're forced to reorient to a completely new landscape). Moving them an intermediate distance (e.g., 50 feet to 2 miles) confuses forager bees, causing them to return to the old, empty location and get lost.
Bees require a nest site, nest building materials and plants as a source of pollen and nectar. Native bees usually depend on undisturbed patches of bare soil, sand or clay banks and living and dead plant material as nesting sites.
The best way to provide nests for native bees is to provide undisturbed areas where they can make their own nests. Some key elements to provide are standing, dead stems, downed logs, brush piles, and most importantly, undisturbed ground (both bare and covered with thatch).
The 7/10 rule in beekeeping is a guideline for when to add a new box (super) to a hive, suggesting you add it when bees have built comb, brood, or stored honey on 7 out of 10 frames in the current box, indicating they need more space and preventing congestion, which can lead to swarming. This proactive expansion supports the colony's growth, reduces stress, and maintains natural hive behavior, but it's also important to consider factors like time of year and overall hive health, not just frame count.
Follow these October beekeeping tips to keep your bees safe and healthy and make the most of the fall season.
Think all bees look alike? Well we don't all look alike to them, according to a new study that shows honeybees, who have 0.01% of the neurons that humans do, can recognize and remember individual human faces.
Chemicals that can hurt your bees.
Keeping Stingless Bees in their Original Log
The safest way to keep a nest of Stingless Bees is to leave it in its natural log. Even in experienced hands, some nests can die from the disruption of being transferred to a box. A solid natural log can provide far better insulation for a nest than a wooden hive box can do.
🐝 Old bees no longer return to the hive in the evening, they spend the night on flowers and, if they have the chance to see another sunrise, they resume their activity bringing pollen or nectar to the colony. They do this feeling that their end is near.
Varroa Mites are the #1 enemy of honey bee and beekeepers around the world. These external parasites feed on the blood of adult honey bees, and reproduce on honey bee pupae. They can considerably weaken individual bees, and often vector viruses and other pathogens between bees.
Water source should be close to the hive (especially in the winter) but not directly in the flight line to prevent contamination from cleansing flights (10-100' away) Keep number of watering stations with various salt and mineral contents – let the bees decide what they need.
Place in your garden close to your flowers and in a spot sheltered from the wind. Replace the water regularly or replenish when empty.
Eucalyptus Oil:
It's often used by placing eucalyptus leaves in the hive or by using a diluted eucalyptus oil solution. Moderation: As with other strong-scented oils, use eucalyptus oil in moderation to avoid overwhelming the bees.
Bees and wasps are repelled by the following plants, most of which have strong herb or mint smells:
These techniques help drive the bees away rather than killing them, ensuring their safety while solving your bee problem.
Sugar water can spread disease between bees visiting bee feeders. Whilst it's true the bees could pick up the diseases whilst visiting flowers its far less likely than if the bees are using a bee feeder. Flowers produce miniscule amounts of nectar.
While swarming is a form of reproduction, absconding results from colony stress. In the fall, what appears to be swarming is often absconding.
Varroa destructor, the Varroa mite, is a parasitic mite that attacks and feeds on honey bees. These mites are currently the greatest threat to beekeepers and their colonies; varroa is the most serious pest of honey bees, inflicting more damage and higher economic costs than all other apicultural diseases.
Having a colorful dot on the back of her thorax can make it easier to locate and identify your queen. The other reason to have a marked queen is that you know that a particular queen present in the hive is exactly the same one as before — and not her daughter.
The hive should not be moved more than 50 cm (maximum) at a time and should only be moved at night once all the worker bees have made their way back to the hive. Once moved, keep an eye on the bees to make sure they are foraging and returning to the hive as normal and not hovering where the hive used to be.
Moving a bee hive short distances
If you relocate the hive any further than three feet anywhere inside that radius, your bees will return to the original hive location and wonder where it went. Only a move of less than three feet can be achieved without your foragers needing to completely rebuild their mind map.