Bee Resting Station – Idea For Father’s Day

We have had several people ask if we can make them “bee pit stops” so we thought for Father’s Day – they are ALWAYS difficult to find something for we would make this special offer.

1 bee resting station, with a hand painted stone of choice (happy fathers day, bee pit stop, hydration station, bee happy).
Choice of slate stones or cotswold pebbles
Delivered by hand in the Stockport area before Sunday

£12 each
We can put your Dads name on the stone (£2 extra) with all profits ploughed back in to the planbee sanctuary.

Contact us for further details or for credit card payments
on 07931724164 or email admin@planbee.uk

So what is a bee resting station and why do they help???

We are often asked “what can we do on a small local scale to help bees in our garden?”. We mention thins like leaving some patches to grow wild for wild flowers, or not getting rid of all the dandelions, planting bee friendly plants. You can also set up a “bee hydration station!”. What on earth is that all about?? Like all living creatures bees need water to survive. What is less known is bees maintain the hive at a constant temperature ALL YEAR, inside the temperature in the middle of winter is the same as in the depths of summer. The way they keep the hive cooler on a hot summers day is to use water almost the same as our air conditioner. So the hotter the day the more water they need to keep the young bee larva at a comfortable temperature and a humidity so they don’t dry out. On some hot days they spend more time looking for water than pollen or nectar.

I have some cool video clips of bees early in the morning hovering up water droplets on leaves just for that purpose.

We can help by creating small areas where water (rain water) can be stored and made easily accessible for when they need it. We wish we could have a pond but like many this isn’t practical so we use shallow dishes which we then put stones or pebbles in (the stones enable the bees to get to the water without drowning).

It gets slightly more complicated during prolonged dry periods (not usually an issue in the NW but has been this year – the rainwater evaporates so the stones are dry!! The obvious answer is tap water but the bees don’t like it with the chlorine etc in it. So what we do is have a box or tub that we collect and store rain water in (out of the sun) and we use this to top up the bowls. Yes it is a bit of effort, but we get into the habit – bit like watering your plants. But it really gives you a “buzz” when you see the bees coming to your little hydration station for water.

THEN when you have got into the hang of that, you can go one step further. Believe it or not this time of year is extra tough for our little friends. The spring flowers are dying back so there is less food around. So what you can do is put sugar water in the dish – providing hydration and a food source!!! We dissolve 1 part sugar to 2 parts water (we just dissolve NOT BOIL (boiling causes them problems), then add it to the bowl and place under a tree or table so when it does ran all the sugar syrup isn’t washed away!

Other Ways You Can Us Help Them