Did you ever wonder why bees huddle near dripping faucets, or under your car when you’ve had the A/C running. Just like other animals, bees need water and in a drought, that can be hard to find. Just as you would fill a bird bath for your feathered friends, your pollinators need water too!
Fun Bee Facts!
- We often think of the honey bee, but there are actually more than 1,100 native bee species in Texas alone!
- Native bees are approximately 300x better pollinators than honey bees!
- Not all bees sting, but when they do they can sting multiple times – only honeybees die after stinging once. Bees would rather not sting you, if you remain calm and don’t swat at them their normal personality is to be calm and carry on.
- Bees have amazing dance moves, when they are explaining where new sources of pollen are they dance out the directions!
- Those hairs on the bees legs and abdomen that hold the pollen are called scopa. When they travel from flower to flower, some of that pollen drops off and pollinates the plants.
Check out this page on Native Bees from the Blackland Prairie Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists to learn more about native bees and to see illustrations of some of the bees found in Texas.
How Can You Help?
This is a quick and easy project that can likely be done using items you already have around your house! It’s a quick and fun project that let’s you help make a difference in the world around you, or at least to your plants and the bees around you.
What You’ll Need:
- A Shallow Saucer or Dish – I like to use the bottom of pots that I have broken or dishes that have cracked and need a second life.
- Rocks or stones for the bees to stand on – I like to use bright colors, but make sure that what you’re using is non-toxic.
- Water or a water source.
How You’ll Do It:
- Take the Saucer and put it near to where you have plants that need pollinating
- Put the rocks or stones into the saucer. I like to make it so that stones are higher than the edge of the saucer, but you mainly need a place for the bees or other pollinators to land.
- If you are a real go getter, you can fill this with water and then check every few days to make sure there is still water present in the saucer. If you are me, you put the saucer next to your drip irrigation so that the water drips into the saucer and fills it for you. This allows you to only need to check on the saucer once a week to make sure it’s not dirty, and you ensure that the bee spa is always full.
- NOTE: If you do the drip method you must make sure that the rocks are above the top of the saucer, otherwise you may drown the bees, which would take away from the whole point of trying to keep them alive.
Once your bee spa is in place, check back to see what bees are coming to your flowers, and check out the pollen that they are carrying around to see their impact on your garden.
For additional ideas visit Buddha Bee Apiary’s Article on 3 DIY methods you can use or just google and you will get a lot of creative ideas on all of your bee bath options.
Sources:
- “Benefits of Native Bees“, AustinTexas.gov
- “How to Create a Safe Bee Watering Station – 3 DIY Ideas“, Alfredo Salkeld of Buddha Bee Apiary
- “Native Bees of Texas“, Blackland Prairie Chapter of Texas Master Naturalists
- Science Under the Stars Event led by Leeah Richardson
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