I will be starting up two hives soon & am a little nervous,cause I live in a busy city. I have a neighbor that has a pool. Will my bees skinny dip in their pool? Can I do something to either lessen this or keep them away from the pool or? Any suggestions would be appreciated, thnx.
I have one of those above ground pools. My bees are at least 500 feet from it. I never see the bees around the pool.
If you want to keep them out of the neighbor's pool you need to provide a steady, close, convenient source of water. Something they can walk up to or crawl down a "ladder" to.
Thnx for the reply,Michael, I've heard that chlorine seems to attract them. A ladder? hmm, perhaps a small slippy slide, lol, This pool is about 30 yards away. Appreciate it, JP.
I found an interesting way to provide water to bees in a book. Basicly, you get a bucket and punch about 10-20 nail-sized holes about an inch or two from the top. Then you fill the bucket with styrafoam chunks or the little peanuts used in packing and, after that, fill the bucket with water. The styrafoam gives the bees someting to stand on when drinking and the holes prevent the styrafoam from running out of the bucket in a heavy downpour.
I have a 24' pool and my bee hive's are just 10 feet away and I have never seen a bee in the water at all. I has baquacil and my neighbor uses reg pool chemicals and he say he has never seen a honey bee in his pool.
I dont know
Move and take the numbers of your house with you so you dont have to change your address and you dont have to worry about the neighbors pool.
OR what is even better go swim in the neighbors pool frequantly and just say your doing control management for the bees :D
We have a pool near the hives, and the bees do go to it. It never been much of a problem though. I think the idea of giving them a close water source is the best way to combat it. The only time we have sort of a problem with the bees is when we're at the pool and have open sodas. They find those easy. But when someone finishes off a soda, we put the cans on the fence, and once the bees find them then the problem quits. They go to the cans on the fence instead of around our "picnic".
Beth
My neighbor has a pool,but my bees prefer the river.