There Must Be Magic

By GirlWithACamera

A Little Something More for Our Beloved Bees

In this blip: the bee bath, a garden experiment.

A while ago, in the very depths of winter, I wrote myself a note. It said this: "Is there something more that we could be doing for our bees?" I was daydreaming about summer, and gardens, and planting new things, and my thoughts had turned to our beloved bees, who can use all the help they can get.

Well, I came across that note a few weeks ago and I acted on it. I had read online that bees like to bathe, but that they worry about drowning. So you can make them a shallow bee bath (how-to tips can be found here) with marbles or small stones, and maybe a twig or two, or some plant matter, or some moss in it.

The last time I went down to my parents' house to treasure trove through their stuff with my baby sister, I brought back a round white ceramic piece that I suppose most people would use to sit a plant pot on. It looked like an ideal bee bath. I also came back with a bunch of pretty marbles. (I'd sent my siblings a note before I went: "Does anybody have any marbles? I appear to have lost mine!" LOL!)

It was suggested that you mix a bit of pink Himalayan sea salt into the water to achieve a pH that is similar to what they have in a honeybee hive. So I went and spent about $4.57 on a nice little bottle of McCormick Himalayan pink salt. Let me add that it was at this point that my husband began to mock me and my project. Expensive pink salt? Just for the BEES?

Anyhow, here is the end product: my bee bath, sitting on an old chair in the shadow of the milkweed patch in the front yard. The green plants all around it are jewelweed, beloved by the pollinators. (I also had moss in it earlier but it got soggy and I pitched it.) 

I change the water every other day or so to keep it clean. I wouldn't say it's shady shady but it's shadowed by tall milkweed. There were TONS of bees in the milkweed until recently; the milkweed blooms have begun to fade and the bees appear to have left for parts unknown.

It sounds like a noble effort, doesn't it? And yet, somehow, I have never seen a single bee in my bee bath that was created with such good intentions. Am I doing something wrong? Does somebody else have a bee bath? Do you actually get bees to bathe in it? HOW?

Short of putting out a sign of some sort (This Way to the Bee Spa!), or fancy scented soaps and little fluffy towels and a mirror, I'm not sure what to try next. Still, it's a pretty thing, and it isn't any work at all to keep the water fresh and clean, so I'll leave it where it's at for a while and continue the experiment. Any input is welcome!

I need a soundtrack song for this, and the good news is I've got a BUNCH of those too. I stayed up late watching Austin City Limits on public TV, and what did they play but Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo! Yeah, it was fabulous! I alternated between singing along, clapping, making happy noises, and bawling my eyes out. The song We Live for Love is in there, and you'll want to hear it. And you'll want to hear their gorgeous cover of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire (that takes place around 45 minutes in). Whatever you do, do it with love! Do it with passion!!! And keep on doing it until you drop, yeah, baby, yeah! For those who loved this set of tunes, here's another dose: Pat and Neil's NPR Tiny Desk Concert.

P.S. Here's the song list for the show: All Fired Up, We Live for Love, Promises in the Dark, We Belong, Shadows of the Night, Hell Is for Children, You Better Run, Love Is a Battlefield, and Heartbreaker/Ring of Fire.

P.P.S. You need to know what Pat Benatar means to me. Her songs are some of my anthems that I listen to when I need to be strong and kick the world's a**!!!! I do admit that there was a phase I went through where I listened to Get Nervous every single morning on my drive to work, singing my heart out. There are FIVE artists I adore, whom I have given myself permission to own EVERY BIT OF MUSIC THEY EVER MADE if I want to. They are, in no particular order: Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and John Mellencamp. (Why, yes, I AM an 80s music maven!) So yeah.THAT Pat Benatar. And yes, I tried to see Pat and Neil live in concert. Pat was to be the opening act for Cher at the Bryce Jordan Center at Penn State a few years back. But Cher got sick and cancelled, and then she rescheduled. And I tried again. And then the rescheduled concert got cancelled, so I never got to see Pat Benatar live!

Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.