Bees Don't Swim. What Do I do??

[Wolf mom]

I have a 3 inch deep pan with a large wedge shaped rock in it that I fill daily for the bees. They love the rock & line up like pigs to a feed trough to drink. BUT I always find from 3-7 dead bees in it every morning. That adds up!

I know they get waterlogged & don't swim very well. What can I do so they stop drownding? Geesh - you'd think they'd know not to fall in. Actually the rock is shaped so they won't fall off it. Silly bees.

I lose about 1 1/2 inches of water daily so I can't have a very shallow dish.

What can I do?? Please don't tell me not to give them water - it's [I]dry/I] here you know.

[littlebitfarm]

Fill it full of pebbles!

Kathie

[flowergurl]

Maybe put more rocks in the dish. They can drink from the cracks between the rocks.

[Alice In TX/MO]

That's only a few bees when you think of the hundreds per hive. A few die each day from old age at about 21 days.

I don't think you need to worry about it.

[uncle Will in In.]

Put a floating landing field in the water so they don't have to lean over so far for water. Use a thin piece of plywood with several small holes drilled in it so they can get a drink over the edge, or through the little holes. It will always be at the same level in the water.

[fordy]

....................Well , lol , I fill mine with all my loose marbles ! They're all colors and very shiny when wet . , fordy

[foxtrapper]

Put a bunch of pebbles and such in the water pan.

[watcher]

You could try a cloth or large sponge in the pan.

[Maura]

Use a large can with a hole poked in the bottom. Set the can in your water dish, fill the can with water. Water will slowly leak from the can. If it leaks too slowly, add another hole.

[terry stewart]

try puting little life vest on them .but all of mine know how to swim they use the pool next to us

[pheasantplucker]

If you don't remove the dead ones, eventually there will be enough bodies in there for the survivors to walk around on them safely. JK

[watcher]

If you are really worried you can buy a feeder that uses a standard canning jar and fill the jar with water instead of syurp.



A quick web search and I found one for $5.

http://www.nabeehive.com/5lbroundglassjar-1.aspx

[mnn2501]

fill the pan with pebbles

[NEfarmgirl]

Our neighbor that had bees used a dish with some cut firewood in it for them to stay on. His bees preferred our swimming pool and we would have to pull many dead bodies out every day. We kept the cover on, but it had holes for ventilation and they would just crawl right in. He never worried about it since he had so many.

[wy_white_wolf]

Originally Posted by Wolf mom

I have a 3 inch deep pan with a large wedge shaped rock in it that I fill daily for the bees. They love the rock & line up like pigs to a feed trough to drink. BUT I always find from 3-7 dead bees in it every morning. That adds up!

I know they get waterlogged & don't swim very well. What can I do so they stop drownding? Geesh - you'd think they'd know not to fall in. Actually the rock is shaped so they won't fall off it. Silly bees.

I lose about 1 1/2 inches of water daily so I can't have a very shallow dish.

What can I do?? Please don't tell me not to give them water - it's [I]dry/I] here you know.

I believe that is called thinning out the gene pool. You don't need to keep bees around that are too stupid not to get themselves waterlogged. Wouldn't want them passing stupid on to there children.

Now, if we could just apply this to the human race somehow.