Hi everyone,

 This is the first year we've seen this. Hundreds of bees coming to drink out of our bird bath, most every day. We've lived here 25+ years and never experienced this before. They are not aggressive and will buzz around waiting while I change the water. I'm guessing they are either honey bees or ground bees. Can anyone tell me just what kind of bees these are, and is this behavior normal. We have looked around but can not see any signs of a nest. Here's a few pics.

                    Thanks

                                 Jim

Look like honey bees.

Those look like honey bees, you must have a hive near by, wether it be domestic or wild. Think they will travel aver a mile. Used to put sand in a pie pan, put just enough water to wet it, no standing water on the surface. Started doing it after I had poured out some water near the drive way. Wasn’t long after that I noticed a collection of butterflies getting water from the wet sand, other insects too. 
l

honey bee.  maybe float a clean car washing sponge in there?

I'm glad the honey bees have a safe environment to thrive. It's much needed. When they go, we all go. Hardly anyone is taking that serious enough.

I recently read a quote that was attributed to a Native American that went something like this:

If the insects die, the Earth will die. If the rivers and lakes die, the Earth will die. If Man dies, the Earth will thrive.   I thought it was  pretty accurate.

Nice. We are a big group of conservationist.

5 hours ago, Darth-Baiter said:

honey bee.  maybe float a clean car washing sponge in there?

Is this to help them? 

11 minutes ago, jbmaine said:

Is this to help them? 

I've seen them put out a sponge so the bees can sit on it and suck water from it.  

 

 

16 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

I've seen them put out a sponge so the bees can sit on it and suck water from it.  

 

 

OK, Thanks

They look like yellow jackets. Google them. I had a bunch of them here two years ago trying to build nests in my house.  One place was at the front door, and the other was in the basement through a crack they found. They never came back after that year. They could be looking for a place to build a nest. I suggest killing them before they get too comfortable.

definitely not yellow jackets.  a yellow jacket looks like this

 

 

this is also a yellow jacket

4 hours ago, GreenPig said:

Nice. We are a big group of conservationist.

I think the term describes sportsmen pretty well.

Definitely not yellow jackets in the OP , unfortunately I’m very familiar with those 

I like the term “stewards”.  Better.  

My buddy found honeycomb inside his basement walls at a new house he moved into, no bees. He took it out and put it in the back of his truck to toss into the woods at work, but forgot. When he got off work, the bed of his truck was literally covered in honey bees hahaha. He got a very long tree branch and gingerly removed the honeycomb and drove away very slowly and carefully 

 

another time I was on a back porch of an old cabin I rented and heard some crazy noise. I asked my buddy what that was, he said sounds like bees. About that time, a huge swarm of bees came out of a cedar tree and left in a straight line like they had been summoned . He theorized a new Queen was born and all the rest followed her. 
 

we seem to have tons of honey bees (and all other manner of bees) here in the jungle, every third house is an amateur bee keeper. I keep my distance from all of them, my 15 year old epipens may not be up to the task