winter watering with bubble wrap

When winter days only warm to 50 °F, my floating plastic straws or Scotch Brite pads did not protect the bees from drowning.   In my disappointment, I tried to imagine something better, perhaps plastic straws and bubble wrap.   Even more simple...I'm using one layer of bubble wrap with the smooth side down.  I cover almost all of the water source with bubble wrap - works great!

water foraging

It's winter and a few days ago snow and ice covered Atlanta.  My bee activity expectations are extremely low.    The temperatures barely touched 50 °F, but with the leaves down, the afternoon sun touched the landing board.  On an old post, I showed how to make rafts using plastic straws.  However, this is the first time I caught the bees using the raft.  What can I say, I'm easily flattered and entertained.

watering bees

I filled a boardman feeders with 1) filtered water, 2)water with a trace of honey b healthy, 3)water with a trace of kosher salt or 4)water with lots of kosher salt. The results are no success with bee watering. Additionally, I have 3 birdbaths that are not attracting bees. This year I am using woven plastic straw rafts in the (unlikely) event that a bee lands in the birdbath. Last year I attached, the plastic straws with hot glue, but those rafts were easily damage by freezing winter temperatures. With regular day time highs in the 80's Fahrenheit, where are the bees gathering water? Clearly, somewhere else. For a few hot days, a small number of bees were collecting water at the "bird girl" statue--see photo.