How to Build a Bee Waterer: Sizes, Costs and Upkeep

Reviewed by Sofia T. · Last Updated October 6, 2026 · How we review

To build a bee waterer, fill a shallow dish, such as a 10- to 12-inch plant saucer, with stones or marbles, then add water until it sits just below the stone tops. Bees land on the dry tops and drink at the waterline without falling in. Use plain water, keep it filled, and dump and refill it every few days so mosquitoes cannot breed.

It takes about ten minutes and about $15 in new parts. For why bees need water at all, see why bees need a reliable water source.

Key Takeaways

Bees drown in open water. Keep about 1/2 inch of water under stone tops that stand 1/4 to 1/2 inch above it.
A 10-inch saucer holds roughly a cup of water once the stones are in. USDA researchers wrote that one colony may use a gallon on a hot day, so beekeepers need a reservoir.
Mosquitoes can go from egg to adult in as little as four days, per the EPA. Dump and refill small dishes every two or three days in hot weather and scrub them weekly.
Never add sugar or honey. A pinch of salt is optional; lab tests show water-collecting bees respond to salty water.
Set it up early in the season, before bees learn to use a pool or a neighbor’s birdbath.

What Makes a Bee Waterer Drown-Proof
Materials and What They Cost
How to Build a Bee Waterer, Step by Step
A Self-Filling Waterer for Beekeepers
Where to Put It
Cleaning, Refilling and Mosquito Control
Frequently Asked Questions

What Makes a Bee Waterer Drown-Proof

A honey bee drinks with her feet on something solid. Open water gives her nowhere to stand, so a waterer turns it into many small, wet edges.

“Bees can’t swim! They must be able to stand where it’s dry and drink.”
The Bee Gardener blog, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, February 12, 2018

River stones, glass marbles, wine corks, sticks, floating clay pebbles or a floating sponge all work.

Row of honey bees gripping a wet concrete rim and a fallen twig while drinking from a shallow water trough — Bees line up where they can grip a wet edge. Photo: abbeyprivate, Louisiana, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

In this video of just under three minutes from 2021, Sheri Yato, communications director of the bee-health nonprofit Project Apis m., builds a backyard station. She fills a wide bowl with floating clay pebbles, which stay afloat when waterlogged, and advises shade, frequent refills and no insecticide sprays nearby.

Materials and What They Cost

Example parts and prices from Walmart.com, checked October 6, 2026. Garden centers sell the same items.

Part	Size to look for	Example and price
Shallow dish	10 to 12 in wide, 1 to 2 in deep	Artevasi 10 in terra cotta saucer, $8.98
Base layer	Pea gravel, about 3/8 in	Kolorscapes pea gravel, 0.5 cu ft, $5.47
Perches	Stones 1 to 2 in tall, or marbles	Yard stones, free; Akasha clear glass marbles, 38 oz, $6.97
Reservoir (self-filling)	1-gallon jug with cap	Reused jug, free; Petmate Replendish 1-gallon gravity waterer, $21.99
Total, basic waterer		$14.45 with gravel and yard stones; $15.95 with marbles

Clay, glazed ceramic, metal and thick plastic all work. Clay can crack if water freezes in it, so bring it in for winter.

How to Build a Bee Waterer, Step by Step

Diagram of a bee waterer in cross-section: 10 to 12 inch saucer, half an inch of water, stone tops just above the waterline — The target build, in cross-section. Diagram: BeeKeepersRealm.

Clean the parts. Scrub the dish and stones; rinse until nothing smells of soap.
Set it level on flat ground or an upturned pot so it cannot tip.
Add a gravel bed about 1/2 inch deep.
Place the perches across the whole dish, so no open patch is wider than a stone.
Pour slowly until the water is about 1/2 inch deep and every stone top stands dry, 1/4 to 1/2 inch above it.
Test it. Press on each stone and reseat any that rock or sink.

A pinch of plain salt can help bees find a new waterer. In a 2016 Journal of Experimental Biology study, Pierre Lau and James Nieh found water-collecting honey bees responded most to 1.5 to 3% sodium, and that pools and seawater were among the saltiest sources bees used. Salt concentrates as water evaporates, so dump and refill rather than topping up for weeks.

A Self-Filling Waterer for Beekeepers

A saucer suits a garden. A beekeeper needs volume.

“On a hot day a colony may use as much as a gallon of water.”
Charles D. Owens and S.E. McGregor, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Shade and Water for the Honey Bee Colony, Leaflet 530, 1964

A gallon is 16 cups, so one strong hive can drain a 10-inch saucer many times on a hot afternoon. The simplest fix is a jug, a drip board and a basin.

Diagram of a self-filling bee waterer: a capped gallon jug drips onto a tilted rough board that drains into a gravel basin — Jug, drip board and basin. Diagram: BeeKeepersRealm, after the Gardens That Matter design.

Poke a pinhole near the base of a clean 1-gallon jug with a heated needle. Fill and cap it; a tighter cap slows the drip.
Set the jug on a brick so it drips onto the high end of a rough board or flat-sided log, about 6 by 12 inches, tilted slightly.
Put a gravel-filled saucer at the low end, where overflow soaks into mulch instead of pooling.

A gravity pet waterer or poultry fount packed with stones, or a tub with floating wood, also holds a gallon or more. One USDA design is a 4-inch rain gutter filled with coarse gravel and topped up by a float valve.

Black-and-white USDA photo of a four-inch eaves trough filled with coarse gravel, fed by a float water-level valve — USDA’s gravel trough with a float valve. Photo: USDA Leaflet 530 (1964, rev. 1970), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

For many hives on a farm, see our water setup for temporary pollination yards.

Where to Put It

Near flowers bees already visit, so foragers find it; see our guide to bee-friendly plants.
In part shade, out of the wind, to slow evaporation in hot climates; see protecting hives from extreme heat.
Off paths, and not right in front of hive entrances.
Close to the hives. The USDA leaflet says full efficiency needs fresh water “within a few rods” of the colony; a rod is 16.5 feet.

Start early. Bees return to a reliable source, so a waterer set out in late winter can win before they find a pool. If they already have, see how to keep bees away from a swimming pool.

Some rules require water. University of Florida guidelines by James D. Ellis and Jerry Hayes, Best Management Practices for Siting Honey Bee Colonies, say it should be available at all times so bees do not gather at pools or pet bowls. Mountain Lake, Minnesota’s beekeeping ordinance (No. 4-12, 2012) requires water within 25 feet of the hive. Check your city code with our beekeeping zoning laws guide. This is general information, not legal advice.

Cleaning, Refilling and Mosquito Control

The EPA says a mosquito’s life cycle usually takes about two weeks but can be as short as 4 days, and the CDC advises emptying and scrubbing birdbaths and flowerpot saucers once a week. So:

Daily in hot weather: top it up.
Every two to three days: dump and refill.
Weekly: scrub the dish. Per the CDC, Aedes mosquitoes lay eggs on container walls above the waterline, and the eggs survive drying out.
Self-filling setups: check the drip daily. The USDA leaflet called for a thorough cleaning every two weeks to reduce the spread of bee disease.

A little algae or a few leaves are fine; the UC Bee Gardener notes that bees seek out water carrying nutrients from decaying plant matter. Replace water that smells foul. For a pond you cannot empty, Bti mosquito dunks work, and UC ANR calls Bti harmless to bees. For mud stations used by butterflies and mason bees, see puddling stations.