Bees swarming chicken water

[sourland]

Good advice from @Rod-T. Give it a try.

 

[lcwmt]

I'm new here so, hello to everyone
I need some advice about bees around my chickens water. I have a bucket waterer for my chickens and I bring it out of the coop with the hens while they free range during most of the day. The last couple of very hot days have brought bees swarming to the chickens water! I love bees and they were drowning in the water, so I put out a bowl(same color green as the chicken water) with water and sticks for perches for the bees. They barely go near the bowl and still swarm the hens water.
I guess my questions are:
Why would the bees be so persistent about getting their water from the hens bucket?
And will these bees bother my hens? I haven't seen them go up to their water as often when the bees are there. Do the bees stings hurt the hens? I've already gotten stung and it sucks!

Thank you for any help

We have several colonies of honey bees as well as native bees, wasps and hornets.
At various points in the year the bees are in need of great quantities of water. (and in the early Spring they are enthusiastic about the chicken feed; it serves as a pollen substitute for them.)
Bees will use the bird basins, leaky faucets, dog water dishes, the chicken waterer.

Without "perches" many of them will drown. RodT has good advice about providing a water source for the bees - and that would be a full season source.

To keep the bees out of my chicken waterers I put a very small amount of apple cider vinegar in each waterer. The chickens still drink the water but the bees go elsewhere.

In my experience the bees do not bother the chickens, the chickens do not bother the bees but I do not like drowned bees. Honey bees will only sting when their resources are threatened or when inadvertent contact is made. "Bees" are often blamed for the aggressive behavior of other stinging insects.

 

[alexa009]

Everyone has given excellent advice!

 

[DeanneG]

You seem to have got yourself some bees that don't play by the rules Maybe create a bee waterer - a basin with wood floating on the water may convince them to leave your chickens' water alone

thanks .. I did that and it seems to help. I used a lot of pebbles instead of wood I also added a bit of honey by drizzling over the pebbles to attract the bees and so far there are only a couple still going to the chicken feeder - the rest are all over the pebble dish.. ( I put it just outside the chicken run so the girls cant get it)

 

[drumstick diva]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens Deanne, it's very nice to meet you.