This little worker is taking a drink out of the bird bath in the garden.  The bath is three-quarters full, allowing a "shoreline" for the bees to stand on.  Bees don't appreciated getting too wet!

If you look closely you'll see that the bee has her tongue out.  Is a bee's tongue like a straw and they sip up the water?  I don't know but will find out!

We had placed some thin pieces of wood in the bath - like little rafts - so the bees could land on them as well.

The wood quickly became waterlogged and sank.

I found some large clumps of moss when I was out pulling weeds today and put that in the bird bath the theory being that the bees can walk on the moss and get their drinks safely.  It looks pretty as well.  I'll take a photo tomorrow or the next day.

If the weather is ok when I get home from work tomorrow I'm going to take a peek inside the hives.  I'm curious to see if they are drawing out the comb in the second brood boxes.

I'm still wondering if I need to keep feeding them.  The new feeders I got (the ones that required the new screened bottom boards so the feeders would fit into the entrances) work really well and I don't have to open the hives to replace the baggies of sugar water (the baggie feeders are a good idea but awfully messy).  I've e-mailed Gary but he's working his hives in Oregon so I haven't heard back from him.

It's 8.56pm and still quite light out.  The bees are tucking themselves in for the night.  I will, too.