Our stream dried up and my bees found the neighbour's pool — waterer designs bees will actually use?
Second year in Vermont, four hives. The little stream behind our place has dried to nothing in this hot stretch, and yesterday my neighbour (very patient, but still) sent me a photo of a couple dozen bees around her pool skimmer.
I put out a shallow dish with pebbles the same afternoon and they are completely ignoring it. Classic, from what I've now read.
So — what waterer designs have actually worked for people once bees are already fixed on somewhere else? I've seen the bucket-with-wine-corks idea, dripping hose on a board, birdbath with stones, and 'just make mud somewhere'. What converts them back? And is there anything to putting a drop of something smelly in the water to help them find it?
#water-source#neighbours#summer
▲ 13 votes💬 4 replies✅ Solved
4 replies
AbejaMiguel · Jul 29, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer
Bees are location-loyal, so you can't just offer better water — make yours findable and theirs less attractive for a while. What works every dry season in Jalisco: a 20L bucket with a thick layer of floating corks, placed in SUN (they prefer warm water), plus a handful of soil or a pinch of salt — slightly dirty, mineral water recruits far better than clean. If the neighbour can cover the pool or run the skimmer hard for a week while your station establishes, the pool crowd loses the habit. And next year, start the waterer in early spring before they fix on anything else.
TopBarDavid · Jul 29, 2026
Second the sun and the dirt. In Enugu dry season my best station is just a dripping tap onto a rough plank — the film of water on wood gives them footing, nobody drowns, and the drip noise/moisture plume seems to help scouts find it. Shaded clean dishes are the thing bees ignore everywhere in the world, apparently.
HokkaidoHachi · Jul 30, 2026
A drop of lemongrass oil on the rim (not in the water) helped mine find a new station within a day. And keep it topped up religiously — let it go dry once in a hot week and they re-fix on the old spot immediately.
VTBeeHannah · Aug 1, 2026
Update for anyone finding this later: corks + sunny spot + pinch of salt + lemongrass on the rim, and the neighbour ran her pool robot daily for a week. Day 5 the pool photos stopped. Waterer is covered in bees at 8am. Thank you all!