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I've been keeping this blog for all of my beekeeping years and I am beginning my 19th year of beekeeping in April 2024. Now there are more than 1300 posts on this blog. Please use the search bar below to search the blog for other posts on a subject in which you are interested. You can also click on the "label" at the end of a post and all posts with that label will show up. At the very bottom of this page is a list of all the labels I've used.

Even if you find one post on the subject, I've posted a lot on basic beekeeping skills like installing bees, harvesting honey, inspecting the hive, etc. so be sure to search for more once you've found a topic of interest to you. And watch the useful videos and slide shows on the sidebar. All of them have captions. Please share posts of interest via Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here.Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.

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Tuesday, May 08, 2007

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.
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