# A serious question



## DrippingSprings (Sep 22, 2004)

I may or may not sound stupid with this question but I have to ask.

We have a outbuilding we work at alot. We do car maintenance etc out there. Its a good ways from the house. No bathroom facilities. We have a large funnel with a garden hose attached running through the wall in case we need to take a leak. The hose runs about twenty feet out of the building. 

We have been out there several days in a row for quite some time each day. Between the three of us we have used it a good bit. 

I noticed today when I walked over to the end of the hose that honey bees are all over the area where the urine leaves the hose. I mean a bunch of em. 

Then it sparked a memory from when I was a young boy and seeing someone put up a homemade hive and put a urine soaked rag they said to attract bees.

I had forgotten this til the hose episode.

Why do the bees do this? What is it about the urine that they seem to harvest while visiting the spot where it has saturated the ground?


----------



## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

All questions are serious....The problem that prompted the question however may not be serious and an occasional response may be infused with humor, but the question is always serious.
With regards to your question- bees are drawn to water sources for a number of reasons, my best educated guess here is the salts and minerals contained within the urine. I often see them gathering moisture from manure piles


----------



## DrippingSprings (Sep 22, 2004)

Well I was wondering about the moisture thing. But I have a nie half acre pond about 100 feet away so I wasnt sure if that was it. 

I figured it had to be some type of attractant that was out of the norm. But just not exactly what. 

Thanks for your reply!


----------



## Mr. Dot (Oct 29, 2002)

Boy it's hard not to comment on a post by fellow member with the moniker of DrippingSprings who is asking a question that involves peeing in a hose...but I won't.

It would be wrong.

:1pig:


----------



## no1cowboy (May 2, 2004)

there is a small amount of sugar in urine that might be attracting them


----------



## DrippingSprings (Sep 22, 2004)

Yeah I was thinking that too Cowboy. The whole glucose thing.

Dot sometimes its just handed to you on a silver platter aint it? lmbo


----------



## Mr. Dot (Oct 29, 2002)

Yes it is and thanks for that. 

All kidding aside, I find your recollection of urine to attract bees interesting. Never heard of the such. Begs experimentation.


----------



## turtlehead (Jul 22, 2005)

That's an interesting question!

I found this article entitled "The Choice of Drinking Water by the Honeybee" which is from 1940: 
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/17/3/253.pdf

They did a pretty darn good test with distilled water, rain gutter water, urine, and cow-patty water. They used the solutions listed, plus they distilled the solutions and used the distillates, plus they took the salts etc. left behind by the distillation process and reconstituted them by mixing them with distilled water.

They found that bees are attracted to the *distillates* of urine and the others more than to pure distilled water or reconstituted solutions. They also preferred dilute solutions over distilled water, but not concentrated solutions.

So they are attracted to water that contains certain salts, but the attraction seems to be to the smell or taste of the water, and not the actual salts themselves.


----------



## rmaster14145 (Mar 14, 2007)

Mr. Dot said:


> Yes it is and thanks for that.
> 
> All kidding aside, I find your recollection of urine to attract bees interesting. Never heard of the such. Begs experimentation.



i have never heard of this neither.

thanks for the story  

rm


----------



## dcross (Aug 12, 2005)

I've heard of urinating in a box before hiving a swarm to keep them there. 

On the other hand, is there a chance you have a lot of sugar in your urine(diabetes)?


----------



## DrippingSprings (Sep 22, 2004)

dcross said:


> I've heard of urinating in a box before hiving a swarm to keep them there.
> 
> On the other hand, is there a chance you have a lot of sugar in your urine(diabetes)?


No not me. Ive been checked more than once. BUT my son has had juvenile diabetis for most of his life. But we test him several times daily and his sugar levels very very rarely raise above normally accepted ranges. 

On a side note I do know of one mother who noticed when her lil boy who was trying to be potty trained was outside and urinated in the yard that on three occasions their Jack Russell would try and lick it up. Took him to the doc and casually mentioned it and his level was 500 plus and he was diagnosed as Juvenile Diabetic like my son.


----------

