Sacramento Digs Gardening logo
Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

How to help honey bees survive in this heat

Water trays benefit these beneficial insects in more ways than one

A honey bee pauses for a bit of nectar as well as pollen from a coneflower. Honey bees search for water to cool the hive when temperatures get above 96.8 degrees.

A honey bee pauses for a bit of nectar as well as pollen from a coneflower. Honey bees search for water to cool the hive when temperatures get above 96.8 degrees. Kathy Morrison

People and pets aren’t the only ones who need ways to stay cool during triple-digit heat; bees could use some help, too.

Honey bees in particular benefit from water trays – shallow dishes of water with pebbles or marbles or corks – when temperatures go above 100 degrees. (The pebbles give bees a place to land so they don’t drown.) Honey bees are using that water not just to drink but to cool off their hives.

According to research from Oregon State University, honeybees use water – and wings – to create their own version of A.C.

Water tray with marbles
Here's one example of a water tray for bees and 
other pollinators. The tray is a pot saucer, filled most
of the way with marbles, then water. It sits on a 
small upturned terra cotta pot.

“Honey bees are somewhat adapted to extreme heat,” report OSU researchers. “As soon as temperatures in a honey bee colony edge up beyond 96.8 degrees F., worker bees line up at the entrance and start fanning their wings. In addition, a special group of water-foraging bees begins scouring the surrounding area for water, which they collect and bring back to the nest.

“The bees distribute droplets of water around the nest, which works in parallel with the fanning to create the equivalent of honey bee A.C., or air conditioning. As temperatures rise to extreme heat levels, more honey bees will start to forage for water.”

Bumblebees tend to suffer most from the heat; they have trouble flying when it’s over 100 degrees, say the researchers. Bumblebees have been seen foraging for water (and may visit available water trays), but it’s not certain if they use the honey bee A.C. method to cool their nests.

Other bees don’t make as much use of the water trays, says OSU, but have other ways of coping. Ground-dwelling bees – which include many native bees – avoid the heat by staying under the cool soil.

One thing is certain: Most bee activity drops dramatically in triple-digit temperatures. Instead, they’ll forage (and pollinate) in the very early morning hours after dawn or just before twilight. Expect spotty pollination of squash and melons until weather cools back to normal.

How much longer will this current heat wave persist? According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento can expect afternoon highs over 100 through at least Thursday, July 11. That would match Sacramento’s all-time record of most consecutive triple-digit days – 11 – set in July 2009.

For more on bees and heat: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/pollinators/how-help-bees-survive-heat-wave.

For weather updates: https://www.weather.gov/sto/#.

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Local News

Ad for California Local

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Strawberries

Find our spring recipes here!

Thanks to Our Sponsor!

Cleveland sage ad for Be Water Smart

Garden Checklist for week of May 11

Make the most of the lower temperatures early in the week. We’ll be back in the 80s by Thursday.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Add mulch to the garden to maintain moisture. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch-to-1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.

* Remember to weed! Pull those nasties before they set seed.

* Water early in the day and keep seedlings evenly moist.

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

square-tomatoes-plate.jpg

Find our summer recipes here!

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Muffins and pumpkin

Find our fall recipes here!

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Lemon coconut pancakes

Find our winter recipes here!