The Thirst of a Hive: How Does a Honey Bee Colony Control its Water Intake? by Tom Seeley

A lecture given at the 2017 National Honey Show by Tom Seeley entitled "The Thirst of a Hive: How Does a Honey Bee Colony Control its Water Intake?" The National Honey Show gratefully acknowledge the Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers for their support, and The Central Association of Beekeepers for their sponsorship.
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[@brettwashburn9611]

I think i could probably listen to Tom talk about Honey Bees all day

[@stevematthews2987]

Astounding . been keeping bees for about 15 years but only just discovered Tom Seeley. Watched a few lectures looking for information on scout bees as i am getting a lot of interest in some empty hives boxes/swarm traps .This series has blown my mind and i will be buying as many of his books as i can as reference material . Thank you mr. Seeley and all your help and research sources. Brilliant work .

[@FrederickDunn]

Excellent as always! Water composition is something every beekeeper should be looking into. I've witnessed and filmed the bees taking in condensation inside the hive and I agree that these are taking a shortcut and not the water foragers because they go directly to cells after licking the interior walls/surfaces.

[@kenthompson6539]

Bees naturally turn their hive in to a condenser, to take the moisture out of the nector.

[@aaronparis4714]

I would breath on my bees too to get them home 😂

[@lorindarenteria]

To answer the last question, bees will go to the nearest water source. So if you put a bucket of clean water out with some floating wooden blocks in it, in your apiary or bee yard, your bees will not visit the neighbors pool. I know this from personal experience.

[@thenewbeejournal]

.... I read, watch some videos and now here in this lecture as well, that just clean water is not as appealing; I'm bringing two hives to my home and for the last month I setup a little pond (55 gallons) and a 10 gallon planter full of water as well with a cork plank and letting them grow algae, added some fish for organic content. But this is the second time I heard that the sodium is what they seek. I already added a half pound of sea water (1 pound per 100 gallons) that benefits the fish and also the bees 🐝. I'll most definitely add this on my page, and report if I manage to keep the bees on my water sources, or if my hives were kicked out as there is a huge swimming pool 150 meters away...

[@drpreppersurvival4775]

Beautiful. The girl in the Sukuki sweats burned 1000 calories in that dance.

[@rochrich1223]

Water collector transfers to water receiver for 19 seconds. Nifty, mammels from elephants to schews take 21 seconds to pee. Sounds like a couple loads were less than full.

[@drrota]

I've often thought that tree sap might be a good cheap spring feeding mechanism.

[@marcinmatelski5465]

When I was collecting maple sap few years back, I would occasionally see bees lapping it up. So I took a small container of maple sap, clean water and "dirty water" and set it up near but away from the hives. Sap and dirty water had the most bees around it, clean water very little compared to the other ones. Dr. Rachel Bonoan has a presentation on "dirty" water for bees kzbin.info/www/bejne/l57XkIBtl8qJiqs

[@LucBeeHiveNB]

A source of mineral, little sugar , some amino acid... Im sure gonna try it

[@drrota]

Great presentation. Indirect question - During the spring, there a 'maple tree sap run' This is often before many blooms. Have you ever seen bees drinking sugar maple sap? To replenish waters or sugars?

[@marcinmatelski5465]

When I was collecting maple sap few years back, I would occasionally see bees lapping it up. So I took a small container of maple sap, clean water and "dirty water" and set it up near but away from the hives. Sap and dirty water had the most bees around it, clean water very little compared to the other ones. Dr. Rachel Bonoan has a presentation on "dirty" water for bees kzbin.info/www/bejne/l57XkIBtl8qJiqs

[@kokeskokeskokes]

@@marcinmatelski5465 My dog avoids clean water inside. He prefers to sneak to dirty puddles outside whenever he thinks I am not watching.

[@rosem7042]

@@kokeskokeskokes our dog, too. It must have more flavor.

[@kokeskokeskokes]

"How long it takes to find a bee or how many rejections..." Doesn't matter. The point is she is capable of calculations.

[@kokeskokeskokes]

Ok, never mind. "I am not thirsty and nobody is taking my water, I am all good." No calculations.

[@rosem7042]

Watching my bees suck up dirty-ass water from our pond 150yds away when there's a perfectly good kiddie pool full of well water with branches in it ten feet away is... interesting. It has led me to this dusty corner of KZbin and now I'm down the Bee Hole again.