Bird-and-Bee Fountain

Philadelphia summers run hot for the resident pollinators, so I built a small backyard fountain to keep the neighborhood bees and birds hydrated and cool through the worst of it. It’s minimally complicated thanks to a solar-powered fountain pump and repurposing a tall planter, assembled in true DIY fashion.

How it’s going

The neighborhood sparrows found the watering hole before the bees did. The bees didn’t seem to like the agitation of the pump so I ended up getting a shallow plate with rocks for them, closer to the plants they were interested in. The fussy part has been keeping the water fresh and not stagnant. Since solar power requires sunlight, on overcast days or earlier in the day, the fountain is idle. This has resulted in some algae growth as well as unwelcome mosquito larvae. I will be iterating on the design next summer.

Supplies

Basic setup:

• 14 gallon resin planter
• 6.5 watt solar fountain pump
• big bag of river rocks and random large rocks from patio

Improvements will be necessary to accommodate a more diverse bird population and prevent the algae and mosquito situation. Updates I am considering include:

• pond plants that compete with algae, like hornwort and duckweed
• a wider pond base to allow bigger birds to have space to bathe
• consider an electric pump to prevent water stagnation
• keep mosquito dunks on hand for prevention (the Bacillus thuringiensis [Bt] is bird and human safe)