Thirsty bees
August 20, 2009
Pollinating and making honey must be thirsty work.
Every day the bees belly up to the cattle-trough container pond to quench their thirst.
This one found a convenient pollen source in the pond.
The goldfish must be wondering why the bees are staring in their windows.
All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
I have been thinking about this since the first time you mentioned a bee getting a drink. I don’t think I have ever seen this phenomena. I have only seen mud daubers and yellow jackets at a pond edge. I think it shows what a horrible drought you are in. If bees have to go to a pond to get moisture, well, I just think that sounds scary. Beautiful photos.
Thanks, Lisa. This drought is a scary situation indeed. Wasps do come to the pond to drink as well, but bees are by far the biggest “customers.” —Pam
I have never seen a bee drinking water like that before. Well, you know it’s hot in Texas when the bees drink from a cattle-trough! I suppose they need water just like everything else does though.
One day we had a brief shower, and that day the bees didn’t come to the pond. I think they normally get their water from the plants, but the drought is making that impossible. —Pam
The photographs are very very beautiful indeed. The goldfish is so clearly seen from under the water. There are 3 bees lining up and drinking water. Very unusual.
Thanks for visiting, Autumn Belle. There are often many more than three bees lined up to drink. But each time I got in close for a picture I scared off half of them. —Pam
It is cool that you keep getting pictures of the Bee’s drinking water. I have never personally seen a Bee do this and it is quite amazing.
Jake
You really take the most amazing photos of the most amazing subjects.
Great post Pam!
Wow – great shots! As the others of said this is something I’ve never seen.
I never knew bees & hornet did this until I saw photos from the Austin bloggers’ blogs. Then I started noticing the hornets drinking from my new fountain. I love your photo of the bees bellied up to the bar.
Our bees use the floating duckweed to drink “in the pond”
Fabulous close-ups!! I’ve seen bees do this at the pond we had at the old house. Ponds are great entertainment.
Those close ups are amazing! I love the three bees in a row.
that is really cool!!
Those are outstanding photos of the bees, love them! Kim
I never knew bees drank water until this summer when they started lining up around my birdbath. Amazing!
Fantastic photographs Pam.
Seeing the bee’s stingers gives me the willies ( I’m deathly allergic to bees )
I had a very stinging problem with a swam of bees that came into one of my clients gardens and was drinking from her fountain. Evidently the bee keeper from across the street had problems with his water source for his bees and they all came into my clients yard ( in thick swarms ) to get hydrated. !!! YIKES … run away – run away !!!!
Beautiful fish and cute bees.
Great shots! Bees falling into swimming pools are commonplace here and you have to be careful when you help them out.
That first photo of the bees is priceless! You should enter it in the GGW contest if you haven’t already. Poor dears. Good thing you put in a stock pond. This drought is driving every creature insane.~~Dee
Ok, everyone has already said it, but I have to pile on. All the photos are great but the close up of the bee as well as the 3 bees lined up to drink are amazing!
One more thing, wanted more folk to see your photos, so just tweeted a link to your blog (yes, I’m a bonafide twitter addict)
Thanks for the link, Susan! —Pam
Wow! I love these bees sidling up to the bar. Amazing shots. Fascinating to see the bees like this.
Thank you, everyone, for “beeing” so enthused about my bee images. I counted 17 on the side of the stock-tank pond this morning. They are still very thirsty. —Pam
This is amazing! I’m loving your pond and the cool photography opportunities it provides!
oww…. picture with bees is absolutely fantastic! I don’t think I have ever seen this – and to catch 3 of them together, you are a lucky girl Pam!
What a wonderful post, with such amazing pictures! I’ve never seen bees drinking before, wow. That stock tank pond is so cool, I bet you appreciate it every day!
I have a bucket of water about half full with some news papers soaking in there and was noticing the bees in there. Thats why I came to the net to check it out. I guess I will get a second bucket going with news paper so when I take out one batch they can use the other. We need bees, and it seems they need a good source of water.
oh yeah, great photos!!
I have bees that drink from my bird bath. I had never seen that before so I’m glad I looked it up. You took some good pictures.
I looked this up, because it is happening in our backyard in Gray Me. The are coming in and getting a drink and then flying back out into the woods.