Mailing list for the Person County Beekeepers Association, Roxboro, NC

[Randall Austin <s.randall.austin AT gmail.com>]

Svetlana,

The article <here> touches on this topic. Especially see the section "Reforming Wayward Bees".

To make sure I understand ... most of the time the kiddie pool is empty and the bees don't come around it. But when there is a bit of water in it, the bees flock to it like crazy. Is that the case?

The bees are coming around because they need water (as described in the article). Shooing them away isn't going to work. A much better idea is to give them a special-purpose source of water that they can use instead of the kiddie pool. In your case, this plan shouldn't be too hard to get to work because most of the time there isn't water in the kiddie pool, so you shouldn't have to train the bees not to use it. Instead you'll want to train them to always use something else.

Put something like a bird bath between the kiddie pool and where the bees are coming from. Make sure it is a good distance away from the kiddie pool. A water garden with a small fountain would be absolutely perfect! A large shallow pan filled with pebbles for the bees to walk on is wonderful too. But you can improvise. The important points are that:
1) the new water source is more convenient for the bees than the kiddie pool
2) the new water source is ALWAYS THERE with water in it
3) the new water source is big enough to be attractive to the bees and for them to find it (something bird-bath sized should be fine, but something the size of a teacup would probably be too small).

Put the new water source out when the kiddie pool does NOT have water in it. The bees should find it fairly quickly if it is nice enough. I would wait a few days to make sure the bees know about the new water and are trained on it. Then you should be able to test it by letting your kids have fun in the pool.

Unless the water is flowing (like a water garden with a fountain pump), you'll want to replace the water every few days to prevent mosquitoes from growing in it, or put one of those mosquito dunks in it. Mosquitoes only breed in standing (still) water.

I am assuming that these are YOUR bees. If they belong to a neighbor, politely share this e-mail with them and ask if they will provide water for their bees like a good beekeeper-neighbor should. Give them my e-mail address so they can ask questions. But if they aren't good beekeepers, or good neighbors, you can still do what I've described.

There is a good chance that this plan will work fine. Please let us know how it turns out! Let me know if you have questions.

Randall Austin


On 8/31/2016 12:40 PM, Svetlana Brooks wrote:

791D4B9C-655F-4B9E-87B5-E02773A1D9C7 AT gmail.com" type="cite">

Dear members of PCBA,

I wonder if you could you help me with a problem. We have a little plastic mini-pool in the yard that our kids play in. It is connected to a hose so that we can turn a "sprayer" in it. I regularly change water in there and wash it. For the last few days there was no water in it, but it was not very well washed, and a little water has been leaking through the hose connection. So today we discovered that quite a few bees were there drinking water from the hose connection. We tried to hush them away, to turn the sprayer on, I washed the pool thoroughly, but they just seem to like it and do not want to leave. About a dozen bees at a time are flying over the pool or are drinking the water in it. I don't want my toddlers to get stung, but I don't know how to hush the bees away.

Would be very thankful for your advice.

Best wishes,
Svetlana Brooks
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