Water gathering activities of bees

During a recent hot spell the bees were very seldom around their usual watering spot? Others have noted this at their locations too and they were curious as I am. I would think that the bees would be using more water than usual during the hot weather.

We have an answer for you but would also like to point out something in your question that gets in the way of our understanding of bee behavior. We use more water during hot weather and logically assume that bees must need more water also. However, bees use water much differently than we do. Bees use water only in relation to the humidity within the honey bee colony. If they happen to have a lot of nectar in the colony that has a high moisture concentration, then they utilize much of the moisture from this nectar and do not need to fly for water at all even in very hot temperatures. On the other hand, the temperature might be extremely high and yet the humidity might be high at the same time. Under these high humidity conditions, the colony is quite unlikely to need water in spite of the fact that it is hot. In fact, the reverse might be true and the colony would instead need to be trying to dry some of the moisture out of the hive. We believe this would help explain why your bees did not necessarily fly for water at their normal rate even during the hot spell of weather. Honeybees operate so differently from humans that we are often wrong when we attempt to explain or guess their behavior patterns in relation to our own behavior.