Drinking Bee

A good tip for beekeepers is to keep an accessible water source for the hive to use. Rather than an open water source like a bird bath or similar, bees prefer to suck the water from a damp area.

The absolute perfect solution would be a small sandpit (even a bowl or flowerpot of sand) near the hive and kept moist. However if you dont have any sand the bees will settle for other things! Have you got some seed trays with compost?

As you can see from the picture they will drink from compost in a seed tray quite happily.

So by hardening of your seedlings outside, keeping them moist your giving the bees a perfect source of water. However try and get a few cups of sand to make a more permanent watering hole.