Bees and Smelly Water

I provide my bees with a lovely watering hole made of two pot saucers, one inside the other and blooming plants on the outside edge. But do they use it? Sometimes I see bees watering there. However today as I pulled into my carport, I noticed a lot of bees diving into the gutter on the edge of the carport roof.

Hmmmm, I thought. Maybe one of my hives has swarmed and is building a hive in my attic. I went to get the ladder, set it up, and carefully climbed up to look at the gutter for the entry way to this hive I imagined in my house. As I rose to the level of the gutter, a gross smell wafted through the air. You know the smell of rotten leaves in the bottom of a gutter? That's what I smelled. Upon looking into the smelly gutter, it is now clear that the bees prefer this water source to any botanically lovely site I might provide.

I keep the water in the inner bee pool quite dirty. The water is gunky with dirt from the outer ring plants. However I know when I'm not wanted. The bees much prefer the swamp in the bottom inch of my gutter.