Bees and Water

Bees need water for number of things, like cooling the hive and thinning thick or crystallized honey for feeding. Our home yard has a flowing spring near the hives, but our outyard didn't have a good source of year-round water...until now. This week we re-built our old farm pond, which had filled over the years with silt and cattails. In addition to improving wildlife habitat and providing some good fishing, the new pond will be a short flight for bees foraging for water. (If you look closely, there are a couple hives visible behind the dam on the right side of the picture.)