# Hive to water - best distance?



## nchvac (Sep 5, 2015)

Don't know what is best, but to find water my bees do this- fly 10 foot out of the hive they take a right turn and go about 30 feet to the bowl. They will find it faster than we can- bet on that.


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## photobiker (Mar 23, 2015)

I think what is most convenient for you. That way you will make sure it always has water. Last summer mine was about 15 feet in front of the hives. This spring it is about 30 away.


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

I don't have a watering trough but we do have a pond. We also have a pool. The pond is about 150 feet from the nearest hives and as far as 1200 feet or so from the furthest hives. I have not once heard anyone in my family tell me that they have seen a bee at the pool and I guarantee you that my daughter would have told me by now. Regarding your situation, I have found with dry pollen sub or community feeding syrup that I have had much more success when placing either 100 yards or so from any of the hives. I put out some syrup 30 feet from some hives last fall and also put some out 100 yards from them. There were 100 times more bees using the syrup 100 yards away than that only 30 feet away. I imagine the same would apply to water. Also the syrup and pollen sub that was 100 yards away was located close to 2 barns and I think the bees use them to orient to the general area, meaning it seems to be a natural flyway for them. Try to find a flyway on your place and I don't think you'll have any problems getting them to use the stock tank. I'd put some floats in it. Maybe even something like a water lily growing in the tank for them to land on to drink. 

Our pond is spring fed so it does not get stagnant during the summer. Obviously the water isn't as clean as the water in the pool but it's much cleaner than what I've read others offer to keep theirs out of pools.


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## shinbone (Jul 5, 2011)

Brad Bee said:


> Try to find a flyway on your place . . .


Excellent point I hadn't thought of. Thanks!


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## Colobee (May 15, 2014)

This waterer was withing 10 feet of (behind) many of the hives, and not more than ~60' from the furthest:









There doesn't seem to be a downside to very close.


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## jonsl (Jul 16, 2016)

NJ requires a water source to be within 25 feet of a hive. I set up a bird bath within 15 feet. I have never seen my bees at it. However, they are at my pool and the neighbors pond daily. Go figure.


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## shinbone (Jul 5, 2011)

jonsl said:


> I set up a bird bath within 15 feet. I have never seen my bees at it. However, they are at my pool and the neighbors pond daily. Go figure.


Exactly my concerns.


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## Hops Brewster (Jun 17, 2014)

less important than the distance is the water quality. They like "bad" water with chlorine and/or bromides, stale puddles, moldy swamp water, any water that they can get the mineral salts they need. The pure fresh water you put out daily will probably be ignored unless it is the only water within flying distance.


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## jonsl (Jul 16, 2016)

I have left the water with dead leaves and only rain to replenish it and also tried changing it on a regular basis. They weren't interested in either.


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## jonsl (Jul 16, 2016)

They also will only go to my neighbor's pond when their fountain is on. Guess they're really picky.


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## Hops Brewster (Jun 17, 2014)

add some tasty, thirst quenching bleach.


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## ronsmith9809 (Jul 26, 2015)

add some waterliles and some gold fish, bees land on the water lilepads and drink at the edge and gold fish keep the mosquitoes at bay


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## jbraun (Nov 13, 2013)

I also keep carnivorous plants at my home as well a 1 bee hive. The rest of my hives are in other outyards. The plants grow in a bog that I made out of a 2' round container. There's holes about 6" from the bottom of the container so there's really no standing water. This is only the second year that I've had these plants growing here and a few weeks ago when the temps got above 50 F I started to notice bees around these mostly dormant and dead dried out tops. I know there are at least 2 ponds within 1/2 mile of my house so I'm guessing that's were they get their actual water from in the warmer parts of the year.


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## JConnolly (Feb 21, 2015)

*Re: Hive to water - best distance to maximize usage?*

My bees fly out of the hives to the southeast and then seem to turn west. The pool is 200' to the west. So 90' away I put a big watering tub with some big rocks in it. The lawn sprinklers fill it, the grass clippings make it pungent, and they don't ever make it to the pool.


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## shinbone (Jul 5, 2011)

jonsl said:


> I have left the water with dead leaves and only rain to replenish it and also tried changing it on a regular basis. They weren't interested in either.


It is not necessarily easy to get bees interested in a man-made water source.

For now, I have a 2 gallon bucket sitting in the yard with a few handfuls of wood mulch floating on the water. The mulch gives the bees easy access to the water with reduced chance of drowning. Most of the bees appear to suck water from the wet wood rather than making contact directly with the water. I am hoping the mulch gives the water an odor or flavor the bees find irresistible so this bucket becomes the primary water source for all my hives. I've already got a dozen or two of bees constantly on it on a warm day. This water was in place before we got flying weather, so it is not a case of trying to pull the bees away from an already established water source.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

I had ponds before we had bees. We have around 10 from large with fish to small plant/string algae filled ponds. Also my ponds are filtered by a large pea gravel bog. The ponds are all around 50-75 feet from the bees.
The bees have 4 favorite watering spots. The deck pond water falls into the stream. The bees drink from the water fall rock and the deck ponds which are slow flow no fish. Also from the small ponds near the big pond. '
They love the slow flowing algae filled water, gives them landing places, drinking spots where they will not drown, they do not like the ponds with fish. 

I helped a lady with ponds divert the bees from them. The beek, would not put water on his land, her koi were being stung by the bees when they drank from her pond and her koi ate them. 
She put a 100 gallon stock tank, filled it up , some pea gravel and dirt in the water, then floated a bunch of corks in it, added some honey be healthy that I sent her.
She put it between her pond and the bees, the keeper was two houses away. She also let algae grow, added some string algae from her pond a few plants, it has a nice bee stink. 

The bees totally ignore her pond now. She did need to cover it for a week until they learned the new watering hole.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

our pond is about 8 ft away from the hives, never had any complaints with the neighbors pools


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## DenisQ (Jul 9, 2018)

My bees will be approx 250 yards from a large pond. Is this distance adequate or to far?


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## Grady Stanley (Jul 7, 2017)

I have 2 bird baths filled with rocks and water located next to each other about 25-30' from the hives. The bird baths are pretty much identical except for one being made of metal and other plastic. The bees have a very strong preference for the water in the metal birdbath. :scratch: We have a pool that is another 50' beyond the bird baths. We still have to fish bees out of the pool occassionally but not nearly as many as before the bird baths were in place. Two more beekeepers have hives within half a mile so I'm sure we have frequent visitors from there too.


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## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

I put out a big chicken waterer with wine corks floating around the rim. That goes about 15 feet from the hives. Just a few bees visit it. More go to my neighbors pool. Even more find bird feeder around the other side of the house which is the longest and hardest route. Go figure....


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

Ravenseye said:


> I put out a big chicken waterer with wine corks floating around the rim. That goes about 15 feet from the hives. Just a few bees visit it. More go to my neighbors pool. Even more find bird feeder around the other side of the house which is the longest and hardest route. Go figure....


It has been stated many times that too close to the hive is not good - *blind spot*, as they bees do not know how to direct the others to anything within that blind spot.
The blind extends to about 10 meters/30 feet away (??? may be dependent on a particular setup, but that's the idea). 
This is to keep in mind - works just like with older peoples' vision, pull that paper away so you can read it (too close - unreadable).


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## BlueRidgeBees (Jul 5, 2016)

Mine ignore mine until I put lemon grass oil on the bird bath and then they go to it for a while and then seem to ignore it once the rain washes the oil away. You could put that near your tank every so often to try to keep as many going there as you can.


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