Rudy Mancke hears from a listener who has seen a number of honeybees drinking from the birdbath in their yard.
Transcript (edited for clarity):
RUDY MANCKE:
Hi, this is Rudy Mancke from USC for NatureNotes.
Janice from Green Creek, NC had noticed something that she had never seen before. She had a birdbath in her garden area and honeybees were there, leaning over and drinking water from the birdbath. And she said she'd lived there a long time and had never seen that before.
Why are they doing this? You know, water is important to them too, especially in this dry weather that we've been having. And there's certain honeybees that actually store water in what's called a honey stomach. And then carry it back to the hive, cool the hive down, mix it with pollen and feed it to the young. That's what's happening there.