Bees Drink Water

In Vancouver, we've had 3 weeks of hot weather, temperatures averaging above 28 degrees. All the grass turned brown and forest fires in the Interior of British Columbia are raging. Inside the hives, the temperature were definitely above the 30 degree range with the thousands of bees moving in/out of the hive to collect nectar. When I visited the hives a couple of times after sunset, the bees were bearding at the hive entrance. Bees beard at the hive entrance as it is too hot in the hive to rest. It is just like some of us who will sleep on the floor if our mattress is too hot or set up tent in the backyard where the temperature is cooler. When the ambient temperature in the hive cools, they will go back inside. Bees have a couple of ways to cool the hives down. They organize a few rows to fan the hot air out using their powerful wings. Another row of bees, on the other end of the hive entrance will be fanning air into the hive. Air circulation in the hive is now excellent with all these bees fanning. If you are lucky to be at the hive at this type of moments, place your hand slowly in front of the hive entrance and feel the power of the wind they create from those tiny bodies while at a stationary position. To top off the cooling strategy, foraging bees are sent out to collect water instead of the usual nectar. Below is a picture of the bees drinking water from a pail in the community garden. This pail is about 25 metres from the hive.

 As bees don't swim well or at all, they use their long tongue to reach into the water. When the water level, is beyond their tongue's reach, they may take the risk of swimming and that is when they will get into trouble. As a beekeeper, I should anticipate this. Know where their usual watering holes are and provide floats for them to land on, drink their fill and take off easily. Good floats can be sponge, ice cream sticks or clean wooden stakes. The water the bees source from is hard to control. However, if I can establish a watering hole near the hive, I'll provide water that I can drink as well. The water should be changed regularly and the container scrubbed off debris and algae.