Creating a bee-friendly garden means more than just planting flowers. You certainly want to attract them with gorgeous blooms, but while they are in your garden you will want to give them a place to collect water: a pond, fountain, or a bee bath. A bee bath is a simple bee water feeder that is easy to make and care for in your home garden, and it’s a nice touch to set out for your pollinating guests. After all, without those busy workers in the garden, you wouldn’t have as many beautiful blooms or fresh vegetables and fruit to harvest.
Attracting bees to the garden is an important way to keep your garden healthy and productive. You don’t need to have a mason bee house for native bees, or keep honeybees in boxes to invite these fuzzy, striped insects into your yard. Planting bee-friendly plants and creating an attractive habitat for them should be enough to welcome them into your yard.
Why Do Bees Need Water?
Beekeepers know the importance of having water available for bees. They collect water for a variety of reasons:
- to dilute honey – bees use water to manage the consistency of honey and thin out honey that has crystallized,
- to help with digestion – just like us, bees need water to aid in their digestion,
- to keep the hive cool – these smart little creatures will add water to the hive and fan it with their wings, air-conditioning the space by cooling it down,
- and to feed the babies – the nurse bees that feed the larvae need plenty of water to create the right baby food (royal jelly).
In the home garden, a shallow dish or bowl with some rocks in it that sits above clean water is just enough to give bees a drink. The idea is to create a source of fresh water that has places for the bees to perch as they drink and collect water.
Materials
- Shallow dish
- Plant pot
- River stones
- Fresh water
Make it!
Choose a spot in the garden where it is protected and shady. Set a plant pot upside down to use as a base. Set a shallow dish on top of the pot. Choose a dish that is water safe like glass or ceramic, as plastics and metals may leach into the water. Add a few river stones into the dish. Add just enough water that the tops of the stones are not submerged. Change water daily and clean the bee bath weekly.
Here are some more articles you might like:
- Attracting Beneficial Insects
- The Beneficial Insect Super 7: Important Natural Enemies on Patrol in Your Garden
I have just purchased and put in ‘Seedles’ to encourage more bees into my gardens. Am excited to see what happens! I am going to put in the bee bath to help them prosper. Think I will also use more stones.
What a good idea! I hadn´t thought about putting water for bees, but it makes a lot of sense. I have water for birds!
I will create a bee bath.
Thank you for the idea.
Adelita
Hey! I just set up a bee bath for the bees in my lavender but found that within an hour there was a large number of black ants surrounding the bowl (though it looks like none have drowned yet). Is it okay to have these ants also fixated on the bath or should I put something down to make it more bee-only? Also slightly worried about getting an ant infestation in the lavender
Hi Lorna,
Ants get thirsty too! I don’t mind ants in the garden, they are hard workers and do a lot of cleaning up debris. They become a nuisance when they start to enter the house, or farm aphids on your plants. Ants like the honeydew that is produced by the aphids and so they will place them on plants and run the farm. Lavender is not typically susceptible to aphids so I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Enjoy your new garden friends!
Spread diatomaceous earth all around the base of bath.
Is there a recommended water to use such as spring water or distilled? I work at a greenhouse and lead workshops and one of my upcoming workshops is building a pollinator bath. I want to make sure using regular tap water that is ran through a water softener system is safe to use.
Rainwater is best, but you can also filter tap water if it is not overly treated. I’m lucky to have very clean water in my city. I don’t know about spring water or distilled water for bees. I just try to keep it as close to the natural water they would be drinking and provide that.
Please talk with a beekeeper! You will probably water a lot of things. As a female journeyman beekeeper, the bee bath seems to be more for decoration. Honey bees and most other bees do not like tap water, they seem to like pond water and puddles! Please call your local county extension office or your state dept of agriculture and get the facts on how to water bees for your area. How about becoming a beekeeper, you will be amazed!!!