Honeybees foraging on lichen?

Today I made an interesting discovery in my neighbor’s yard. As I was walking around the bee yard, I heard loud buzzing in the distance. I thought it could be a very late swarm or absconsion. The video below is what I found.

Author: brucelovesbees

I keep honey bees in Reading, Bernville, and Fleetwood, PA without treatments. I love to garden and observe Wasps, Bumble bees, and ants. I also raise mealworms for my Eastern Spotted turtle and myself. View all posts by brucelovesbees

12 thoughts on “Honeybees foraging on lichen?”

THOMAS LINDEMAN says:

October 22, 2020 at 2:02 pm

Bruce First time I’ve ever seen that! Desperate for forage!
Tom Lindeman
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Emily Scott says:

October 22, 2020 at 3:48 pm

Wow! Do they have enough food? Or just very keen? I couldn’t watch with sound on as it might wake the baby up…

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1. brucelovesbees says:
  
  October 22, 2020 at 4:09 pm
  
  Hi Emily! Yes, all of my colonies (82) have good amounts of stores, and I’m currently feeding heavy syrup through the dearth.
  
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  1. Emily Scott says:
    
    October 26, 2020 at 4:14 pm
    
    82!! That’s a lot of syrup 🙂
    
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William Stottlemyer says:

October 23, 2020 at 7:35 am

Very Interesting. I have a little clip of bees foraging on what I think might possibly be urine from when a large animal hit our electric fence and broke it. I wonder if it is because of the mineral content, or if it is because of the sugar content.

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1. brucelovesbees says:
  
  October 23, 2020 at 3:14 pm
  
  I’ve seen them drink urine many times. Could be different reasons.
  
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  1. William Stottlemyer says:
    
    October 23, 2020 at 6:31 pm
    
    I do know so honey tasting wheels have a urine flavor under the animal flavor, but I did not know if that actually means that bees make honey with it.
    
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Adrienne says:

January 17, 2021 at 8:42 pm

This was so cool to see thanks for sharing!

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1. brucelovesbees says:
  
  January 17, 2021 at 9:43 pm
  
  My pleasure. Thank you for visiting the Swarm King. 😁
  
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C says:

June 13, 2021 at 11:00 am

I dye yarn using lichens. Honey bees frequently come in to drink at cool dye pots especially of usnea

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Ted says:

July 25, 2021 at 8:36 am

Saw bumblebees doing this today on fenceposts covered with lichen. Its mid July, 8AM.

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1. brucelovesbees says:
  
  July 25, 2021 at 8:40 am
  
  Cool!
  
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