Honeybees Love My Biochar! (A Mystery)

Well, this is just crazy. I have a couple pails of fresh, dry biochar that were saturated with Vitamin P and left to molder a few weeks. I set them outside and suddenly there's a constant conveyor belt of honeybees coming and going. What on Earth are they after? I have it on good authority my Vitamin P doesn't smell like flowers.

That's fascinating! I know very little about honey bees but am intrigued to see if we can work this one out.

When did you last check your blood sugars?

It's possible that there is glucose in the pee and the bees are trying to collect it.

Burra Maluca wrote:When did you last check your blood sugars?

It's possible that there is glucose in the pee and the bees are trying to collect it.

Hm! That's a curious idea. I thought maybe they were after minerals or something.

I have an annual physical exam that includes a full lab work-up. No concerns on that front.  

I suppose the alkaline nature of char might mean that any amount of glucose might be absorbed into the char itself and not be decomposed by bacteria. Since this is early season, with no flowers at all and nothing but poplar catkins for them to feed on, they might be interested in any source of "nectar" however meager.

I have noticed many times honeybees are attracted to pee spots. They are scent driven so that probably explains it. Why they seem to like that smell is beyond my human brain.

Not up with this biochar stuff, Vitamin P is a flavenoid, and excreted from our bodies from digested foods. It's in coffee and the bees get addicted to it if I'm not careful disposing of the used grounds.
So whether an extract of Vitamin P or actual urine, the result is the same.  Who knew!  A further search on line produces academic articles detailing a few of the benefits that the bees get from it.

Oh wow, Vitamin P is an actual thing! I had no idea, I was just joking around.

Hi Douglas - I did wonder, but my fingers itched go find out if this was a "thing".  I hate not knowing. . . and whilst I have your ear - can I use the charcoal from the wood stove as biochar?  Risk of bushfire prevents burning anything outside.  Ta!

Jill - Sure you can. If it's fully cooked char it'll make a tinkly sound and wash off your hands with water alone. More ideas here:
https://permies.com/t/73894/Making-biochar-wood-stove

You are not the first person to ask this question:

https://permies.com/t/164081/Honeybee-biochar

[quote=Burra Maluca]When did you last check your blood sugars?[/quote]
Yes, this was exactly what I thought too! Diabetes mellitus got its name from how it used to be diagnosed in the (bad) old days- by tasting the pee to see if it was sweet, like honey.

Anne Miller wrote:You are not the first person to ask this question:

https://permies.com/t/164081/Honeybee-biochar

Good find, Anne.

The thread describes exactly the same bee behaviour I'm observing. It must be the salt (sodium) they're after, since they have access to a water pond. They also don't go anywhere near the pails of dry, uncharged char.

I’d lean on the simple explanation that they prefer the water coming out of the damp biochar.  I’ve seen something similar with coffee grounds.

B Davis wrote:I’d lean on the simple explanation that they prefer the water coming out of the damp biochar.  I’ve seen something similar with coffee grounds.

It's possible in some situations, but in this case I don't think so. There is a substantial fish pond three feet away with rocks sticking out of the water.

Edit: Unless it's some sort of bee saloon? A place to grab a fermented beverage that gives them a buzz?

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:
Edit: Unless it's some sort of bee saloon? A place to grab a fermented beverage that gives them a buzz?

Haha, funny visualisation! Thanks for the giggle!

When I was keeping honeybees, I would make sure they always had good fresh water. Closer to my garden is where I would dump the soiled woodchips after my chicken did... everything they do in their litter.
After a torrential rain in the late spring, I went to visit my garden ... and my bees...
Well, not one was near the clear water. They were all by the brown water by the manure pile. I was miffed!
Then I thought let's figure out why they seem to *prefer* water saturated with yucky, "dirty water".
It turns out perhaps because we are humans are are trained from a young age to value super clean, filtered water, we imagine that bees must be liking clean water too. And we are told through many stories of people drinking contaminated water, that sometimes, people die from that.
However, in the case of prisoners who are denied water, we can survive on our own pee as well, though not for very long.
Although we can be afraid to drink from a stream, if we have to do it, we do, and we are usually not the worse for it.
Below is an excellent article explaining the relationship of "dirty water" and honeybees:
https://www.vegasbees.com/post/muddy-water-and-honey-bees-they-love-it-for-many-reasons#:~:text=Bees%20are%20drawn%20to%20nutrient,a%20vital%20source%20of%20nutrients.
And they are not the only kind of bee to be attracted to various salts.
sweat bees are attracted to our perspiration for the same reason:
https://www.gardenia.net/guide/sweat-bee#:~:text=Sweat%20bees%2C%20belonging%20to%20the,consume%20for%20its%20salt%20content.

About five years ago, I was helping harvest grapes on a friend’s vineyard in the Willamette Valley, and stepped towards the plum orchard above to drain the ol’ dipseydoodle. Not needing to worry about aim, I was looking around at the beautiful rainbow of fall foliage on the hillsides all around when I felt something land right above the stream, if you know what I mean. I looked down at a yellow jacket that must have come from the fallen plums just as it stung the worst imaginable place for a man when I flinched and disturbed its drink. Instinctively swatting at it and trying to raise my pants in protection at the same time, that just sent it into my pant leg. There it stung me on the thigh repeatedly as I tried to stop peeing all over myself while dropping trow again. I nearly tripped over half-down pants onto an old tractor implement while doing so, but finally got it off me. I was already laughing at how ridiculous that must have looked if I had a peeper. I figured it was thirsty at the end of a dry summer, but maybe it was mineral deficient. Surprisingly, after about 2min, the thigh stings hurt a lot more.

Paul Stamets of Mycology fame has observed bees eating the mycelium of his King Stropharia mushrooms.  He concluded that they were using it as medicine.  Penicillin is a form of fungi that we use as medicine.  As Rachel Carson would say, the balance of nature comes together to heal problems in the ecology.

John S
PDX OR

I set out a "freshly infused" pail of char (pail #2) a few days ago. Bees are on it constantly. They have abandoned pail #1 for the fresher, tastier one. I will give #1 a churn and see if they come back.

Meanwhile I wonder if this is a potential side hustle? I mean, if my Vitamin P is a honeybee party drug, why not sell it on ebay! (*Facepalm*)

The whole adventure continues to be quite interesting, and quite weird.

Hello saluti

Feeling a bit lazy as there are so so many activities vying for attention.
I’llget more done qhen I have had a good think.

VITAMIN P and biochar.

Factopi is a local start-up in the Drome/Ardeche counties in France collecting human Vit P and aupplting it to farmers.

My personal high quality(obviously) Cip P protected the box hedge from the box tree moth.
The insects preferred ro meet our maker in the jars of Vit P provided under the foliage.
I also put some rhubarb leaves on top for the oxalix acid.

A walnut husk moth or is it fly, is also partial to the golden liquid thus protecting the fruit from undue stress.
Thank tou for all the interesting references inc the one to Payl Stamets.
He’s been involved in bee health research in France.

Good wishes to us aM-H

Haha, an afternoon typo frenzy in my Biochar Vit P post.
Apologies
M-H

Ben, got a good laugh out of that one!!   Yellow jackets won't be deterred from getting meat.   When there is roadkill there is pee, and that's what attracted them.  

On the upside, bee/yellow jacket/hornet venom has been found to be good for arthritis!

Remember, when you leave out water, or any liquid for bees, which is a very good thing, always leave stones or a stick leading above the water in the container, so that bees that come in for a drink can crawl their way out and fly away.  I found many dead bees before I did that. It made me sad, and gave me less fruit.  I think that in nature without humans, the reservoirs of water are very tiny, like an up turned leaf. They can crawl out of that pretty easily, but not a 5 gallon bucket with vertical sides. Sometimes nature works great, until we screw it up.

JohN S
PDX OR

Anne Miller wrote:You are not the first person to ask this question:
https://permies.com/t/164081/Honeybee-biochar

Excellent thread. Beekeepers here. Our pond is almost dry and we set out a trough in shade for the bees with long branches sticking out of the water and sliced corks for them to drink from. Haven't noticed them going there yet - I hope they're not drinking from neighbors' livestock water. We put some dirt and leaves in there. We had been told about salt but didn't know how much. I will add some Celtic sea salt today, maybe a touch of Himalayan, and see if they like it then. Thanks, everyone for the education/entertainment today