Or, maybe they are taking water back to the hive?

Heat index today was 110. The last two days I have seen bees coming and going from my bird bath.

Yes they are probably taking it back to the hive to cool it down to between 93ºF and 95ºF

They need water for dehydration and to mix with honey to feed their young, as well as cooling the hive.

Check June's article for Charleen's (Ridesredmule) water dish for her local bees. Photo is on the bottom right.

http://garden.org/articles/vie...

I normally only see wasps and bumblebees so it is kind of cool to see a "real" bee, but... a bummer that it is so hot for them.

I looked at the photo of Charleen's and also read the post about her adding rocks so the bees would not drown. One of the bees in my bird bath looked like it was doing the side stroke and I put a twig in to get him out. He fluttered his wings and flew away.

Thanks for the link, it was informative.

If you scroll through all the articles you will find more monthly plant lists starting with January and one on honey, pollen and propolis.

The honey bees you see in your garden are all female. The males don't do anything except mate with a young queen. All the males get kicked out of the hive or stung to death when it's time to get ready for winter.

Well I learned something new...the bees I see are she's

Here is one more photo...I like the shadow of the bee in this one.

I couldn't believe how many bees there was. I hope yours have settled down, seems like mine have.

Maridell love that picture,

Hi Charleen our bees are doing good but will need food soon they've ate most of the extra honey we left them to get through this hot spell.

What will you do now, Mindy?? Keep feeding them or will they go forage and make their own. No wonder it is a small hive. Poor things can't keep theirselves up...

Our temp forecast for the rest of the week is in the 80's about 10 degrees less than the last couple days...bees should fare better.

Oooo, that sounds cool comparedc to our 90-100 due next couple of days.

Charleen if it looks like they need help before the temperature cools or before goldenrod and other late summer/early autumn flowers start producing nectar we will feed them a heavier mixture of sugar syrup. Hopefully, they won't need it. We still have stuff blooming but some plants tend to shut down nectar production when it's too hot and not enough rain. Right now, they can forage on wildflowers in early morning and late evening when it's cooler.

Yes, I hope the little fellas get out there and keep theirselves going....Busy as a bee...

I like Charleen's idea of the rocks in the dish to provide the bees with water. You can also put short pieces of 1" x 1" or 1" x 2" (not pressure treated) in your birdbaths, they float & make a nice landing spot for the bees. So both the birds & the bees can use the birdbath.

They sure do need them or a piece of a stick. They can crawl out that way.

I've hardly seen any bees lately....heat or drought affected them, maybe. I've done the woody stick in the water bowls thing this summer. More because of the wasps...kept finding drowned wasps in the water bowls. I THINK it was more because they were starving or sick. I've almost never seen a drowned paper wasp before this summer...they are very good at lighting on water and then taking off. But this summer they were drowning often. Now the population of paper wasps is pretty low and some other wasps are showing up lately. We're going to get a break in the heat this week. Rain would be nice, but it's not in the forecast. Dreaming of autumn!

I agree with you that they are probably sick or starving. Drought like yours kills their food supply. We are all praying you all get some rain without floods. It will affect the wild bees more than those kept by beekeepers because a good beekeeper will be feeding his bees to get them through this. We are having to feed ours now waiting for the autumn nectar flow to begin which won't be for a couple more weeks or so.

We appreciate all the prayers we can get! I'm keeping what I can alive. I put out birdfeeders and water inside the yard and put more birdseed, some deer feed and as many water containers as I can outside the fence. Of course, I'm trying to keep everything I can going in the yard as far as my plants. There will be flowers this fall, of that I am sure!

Linda, how about a salt lick outside the fence too? The critters will need that to help them through this stress.

Oh...I guess the feed store would have that kind of thing? Thanks. Never thought of that! I didn't have much experience with this. The first time I bought deer feed, the feed store asked which kind...listed all the kinds they had. I said...well, I just want to feed a few deer...I don't know what kind. At least I knew not to just buy deer corn by that time.