Would it have a negative impact on pollinators to put out a bowl of sugar water in the vicinity of early blooming varieties to attract them to the area just prior to bloom? I dont have much for natural plants currently that bloom early enough to be much of a draw. Or is it just a waste of sugar water 
because the bees will find the blossoms regardless?
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I don’t think sugar water will attract bees, it doesn’t work when I try to use it to attract yellow jackets- not straight anyway. Didn’t trap any beneficials either. Nothing but flies, as I recall.
Crocus are something you can plant that draw pollinators to the property early- and you can grow them right in your lawn.
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The sugar water would be what the bees would focus on until it was gone. Honeybees work one crop at a time. Had someone once tell me they planted 5 acres of red clover for bees. I had never observed honeybees on red clover rather only bumblebees. This prompted me to send in to the bee journal to get the facts set straight and they published the question and answer in their magazine. Bees primary honey crop is clover but not red because their tongues are not long enough to reach the nectar in the florets most of the time (sometimes the nectar is high in the red clover bloom and they can reach it). Yellow and white sweet clover and white dutch clover , alfalfa etc are all excellent things to plant in your orchard to draw bees. You might want a hive or two of your own. I’ve kept up to 30 hives. I leave wasps at my house in the spring because they are pollinators here. They get kind of difficult to put up with but they are very good for fruit. Later in the year if they try to eat your fruit and they will you can kill them with traps easily. Bees send scouts out in all directions and they find the richest source of nectar to make honey from if that’s what they need at the moment and they work that crop. If you purchase a hive of bees for your almond crop there is no guarantee they will look at almonds if 1/4 mile away there is a better nectar source. The only way to get crops pollinated is to have enough bees to work all the flowers in the area.
I was thinking that bee keepers sometimes put it out at hive locations to supplement the food source when flowers were in short supply? I could be mistaken. I know when it was warm on a couple of days that I was pruning there was a small number of bees landing on the cut surfaces I assume trying to get a a little sap. Thats what made me think that the bees might be a little more active in a given area if they have something to draw them to the area.
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We do absolutely feed bees sugar water to supplement their food supply sometimes.
Ok I might give it a shot. I just didnt want to cause any negative affects for the bees. I would remove the sugar water when flowers are blooming.
Sugar water is used to help feed the hive of bees during times of food shortage such as late winter. If you place honey outside the nearby bees will flock to it to the point of causing an unwelcome frenzy.
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Add some Styrofoam to the mixture so the bees do not drown. As Auburn mentioned bees love to rob another hive of honey If you put out some honey it’s all available worker bees headed that direction.
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I wonder why they ignore my sugar water? I guess I shouldn’t have jumped in here when there are several beekeepers on this forum more knowledgeable than me- but I stand by my recommendation of crocus. They are the first bloomers here that attract swarms of high buzz.
Plant them once and they remain for decades.
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Sugar water is the last thing on their mind when they see an orchard of apple blossoms. Sugar is fine in a pinch but I think it’s like someone feeding us bread when we are hungry. We add feeders the size of a frame that hold a gallon of sugar water inside the hive but if it’s clover season they hardly use any at all of what we give them. I only know this because just after or before clover season no nectar is available and they eat sugar water like crazy. The second a clover nectar flow starts you can tell it started.
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Thanks Clark. I understand now. So I’m guessing that native pollinators will be much more attracted to Crocus blossoms than sugar water.
The crocus blossums are likely a good food source because as it is with us sugar is fine but maybe not the very best food for us. In the south there are many site specific nectar flows such as tupelo flowers. Water white honey is the most valuable for sale but least nutritious which is typically made from clover. The higher mineral honey is the darker honey. Every honey has a specific flavor as well which most consumers are unaware of. Blackberries are a crop that my bees love and I love both the honey and what I get in terms of larger berries. like fruits what you see in the store is merely a scratch on the surface of honey types. A cousin in St Louis lives close by the Mississippi which you know is a major way goods are transported and got me some leatherwood honey that was very different from anything I tried before. They have a goods store there which are things that have been shipped in from around the world. I would imagine Texas and California have similar stores in the port cities if a person knows the area.
Decades ago in CA, avocado honey was my favorite. It is dark and rich.
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