Social Drinking and Western Honeybees

Though nectar is mostly water, bees do drink plain old water too, and that's what I think these Western Honeybees were up to. Although I didn't catch them in the act of drinking, it didn't appear there was another obvious reason why 2 honeybees would be in this spot unless it was for the water. I've mentioned before that honeybees both forage for and drink water; perhaps since there was more than 1 here they're foraging for water? My thought process here is that 2 honeybees being thirsty at the same time would be a little coincidental, but if the old homestead (beehive) needs water maybe there was a coordinated effort to bring water back for other honeybees.

On the other hand, it may be that these 2 honeybees have been foraging for approximately the same time and on similar flowers, so it wouldn't be shocking if they got thirsty around the same time too and flew down to wet their whistles.

June 10, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 300986011, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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