07/06/2025
Good morning to you all. It's the beginning of June which for bees is what we call the June-gap.
Why do bees collect water during the June-gap? It occurs every year after the spring flowering trees such as sycamore and whitethorn have finished flowering and will continue until the blackberry, clover and fuchsia start to yield nectar around midsummer in most areas.
During the June gap, we see more bees visiting water sources outside the hive. The reason for this behaviour is that during the June gap, bees collect water so that they can dilute the honey stored in the hive and eat it. Surprisingly, incase you didn't know bees don't really eat honey in it's natural state...
In order for bees to use honey from the hive, they will mix honey with water to dilute it. The reason that honey is not stored with a higher moisture content initially so that the bees can just eat it when they need it is that it would ferment and spoil. Hence the need to first reduce the water content of nectar from about 80-95% then to below 20%. And then seal it with wax to avoid it absorbing moisture while storing it. When needed they then increase its water content to be able to consume it.
The brood food produced by the glands of young worker bees contains about 70% water. Open brood (larva) is quite hungry and its regular and frequent feeding increases the water use of the colony. The queen can lay over 2000 eggs per day so in a full size colony, there are lots of hungry mouths to feed. Therefore, the more brood food that is produced, the more water is needed to sustain the colony.
Nectar contains a lot of water, so when there is a nectar flow, there is no need for bees to collect that much water (unless they need it to cool the hive). But when the nectar flow from sycamore and other spring flowers have stopped, we see a drastic increase in water collection. You then often find bees in pools, ponds, at the beach, garden hoses, animal watering stations and dirty puddles. Bees are attracted to water they can smell, so if you are making a water drinker for bees in your garden, consider adding a bit of salt to make it easier for bees to find it. Also good is to add moss, pebbles or sticks for the bees to stand on so that they don't drown.
Sometimes in the next few weeks you'll see posts on social media asking you to put out saucers with water and sugar to help feed the poor starving bees. These posts circulate every year, and are really misinformed, and potentially harmful to our insects. By adding sugar to water you will attract wasps, which can be a nuisance, and you could also encourage 'robbing ' where nearby beehives are targeted and robbed by wasps or other bees and potentially lead to spread of disease. So whatever you read please don't do that!
If you want to help bees, make a water drinker or plant some nice lavender or other plants that flower during the June gap. And enjoy the sight of busy little happy bees in your garden.
Have a wonderful weekend ❤️🐝
