Bees love compost. Bees use smell as well as the famous waggle dance to navigate a location. Smell, warmth, consistency and convenience combine to attract honeybees.
Smell
It’s easier to follow a smell than to take the time to ask for directions to the cleanest watering hole. Honeybees are attracted to my pool water. Chlorine smells.
Warmth
Warm water is preferred since bees need to keep their body heat above 57 degrees to fly. Bees in the compost pile indicate a warm and healthy composting.
Consistency & Convenience
Bees prefer a site that consistently supplies water, nutrients, and mycelium over a puddle that will dry up quickly, even when the puddle is located just outside the hive entrance. Temporary water requires that bees re-navigate every time a puddle dries up. Navigation requires communication (more work). The compost pile provides consistency and convenience providing a safe place to land. A bucket of water is lethal. Many dead bees are found floating inside water buckets because they have fallen in and can’t get out.