I have one of "those" neighbors, who after three months, had one child get stung once while swimming in their pool. Despite the fact that I've only gotten accidentally stung by the wasps in the area, I'll assume it was one of my honey bees.
They have a creek with water in it just next to the hive, but it is pretty buried in brush so perhaps they find the neighbor's pool more inviting. Would there be a way to deter them from going to the pool? For instance, how much help would it be to set up a little watering station in front of the hive?
For the most part the bees like to fly away from the area of the hives to collect water. I believe it is easier for them to communicate a longer distance rather than real close or in the hive itself. If the creek is say 40 to 50 yds away and a area could be cleared so they can pick up on the reflection of the water they may use it. The unfortunate part is now that they have used the pool and told the others where it is and can use the chlorine smell as a reference it will be harder to stop them from visits. You could set a kids pool beside the creek, if you clear the spot out as mentioned above and put a small amount of chlorine and floats for the bees to land on to lure them to the new area. Good luck.
This is a problem that I have solved. I'm sure nobody will approve of my solution. I had the same thing go on when SOMEONES bees discovered the neighbors salt water pool.
The USDA recommended using soapy water sprayed on the Bees to kill the ones that know about the water source. That method didn't work. I used a regular old shop vac. Once all the bees that visited the pool were gone no more have showed up. It's our responsibility to be good bee ambassadors. IMHO.
To avoid this, I use a boardman entrance feeder with only water in it and leave it at each hive. The bees know it is there and go through a lot of water this way without the need to forage for water. I highly recommend it.
Bees are a lot like deer in the garden. They don't like urine. Go pee in your neighbor's pool. It will take a lot due to the vole of the water in the pool. :evil:
Disclaimer: This won't work with the bees. I have just always wanted to tell somebody to do this.
I like the idea of using a feeder with just water in it. I've tried putting a bird bath full of water right in front of the hive, but they don't seem to have any interest in it.
I have a pool right next to my hives, 20' at most. Sometimes it is full of bees, other days almost none. I always wondered why. I did notice that a lot of the bees that I find in the pool have defects.
One day I was sitting on the first hive watching the bees. I saw a bee come out of the hive holding another bee. At first it had a little trouble lifting off, then it flew straight out from the hive, went about 15', turned left, flew over the pool and at the far end of the pool dropped the bee into the pool. I walked over to the bee in the pool and picked it up. It was dead. The bees are using the pool as a garbage dump.
I also pull bees out of the pool and put them on the deck. They all end up walking back into the pool. It doesn't matter which side of the pool you place them on, they go back to the pool. If you look close, they usually have wing defects.
I have since paid attention as to when the pool has the most bees in it at one time. It has been after I have brought home a hive that was a cut out or a swarm that was vacuumed up, like the one I removed from the wall of Chamber of Commerse Center, down town. It was 4 stories up.
Jim
I stumbled on a solution that works pretty well. In the early spring, the tree frogs lay their eggs in the water on top of our pool cover before we open the pool. When my son was little, we decided to "save" the eggs and watch them develop into frogs. So I placed a plastic 55 gallon drum right next to the pool, filled it with water, moved the eggs to it and floated a dead log. The water becomes a little green and it seems the bees prefer it that way. They now leave my pool alone. Needless to say, we raise tree frogs every year now.
Quote from: sawdstmakr on July 19, 2012, 01:31:11 PM
I have a pool right next to my hives, 20' at most. Sometimes it is full of bees, other days almost none. I always wondered why. I did notice that a lot of the bees that I find in the pool have defects.
One day I was sitting on the first hive watching the bees. I saw a bee come out of the hive holding another bee. At first it had a little trouble lifting off, then it flew straight out from the hive, went about 15', turned left, flew over the pool and at the far end of the pool dropped the bee into the pool. I walked over to the bee in the pool and picked it up. It was dead. The bees are using the pool as a garbage dump.
I also pull bees out of the pool and put them on the deck. They all end up walking back into the pool. It doesn't matter which side of the pool you place them on, they go back to the pool. If you look close, they usually have wing defects.
I have since paid attention as to when the pool has the most bees in it at one time. It has been after I have brought home a hive that was a cut out or a swarm that was vacuumed up, like the one I removed from the wall of Chamber of Commerse Center, down town. It was 4 stories up.
Jim
Oh wow, now THAT is super interesting. I'd love to have the setup to be able to study this. If the bees are truly using large water sources as "dumping" grounds, it would make sense from an evolutionary standpoint. (Get the dead/potentially infected where they definitely can't contaminate the hive, and have a high probability of being consumed by predators that are no threat to the bees.) It'd be amazing to see if this was "normal" bee behavior.
What Sparky says makes logical sense to my noggin', but my bees evidently think differently. I have water sources close to the bees and there are MUCH more bees at those sources than around the pool. I have also collected the tadpoles like Robo and agree the bees are definitely attracted more to the old stinky water than to fresh pool water. My favorite water solution is to set up a flat of peat moss close to the hives and leave a water hose dripping in the peat moss to keep it wet. The bees love landing on the peat and sucking up the water below.
However even with dedicated watering sources close to the hives, when you have hundreds of thousands of bees in the back yard, some will always find a pool and fall in. I have fished out perfectly healthy bees. Like with most things, it is very difficult to achieve 100% perfection.
:-D
Quote from: AllenF on July 06, 2012, 03:32:45 PM
Bees are a lot like deer in the garden. They don't like urine. Go pee in your neighbor's pool. It will take a lot due to the vole of the water in the pool. :evil:
Disclaimer: This won't work with the bees. I have just always wanted to tell somebody to do this.
Actually, bees like a little salt in their water. ;) Peeing in the pool is only gonna attract more bees. Tell their kids to stop!!!
And that is the trick to attracting the bees to your near-by water source. A teaspoon of salt in the birdbath. (Instead of peeing in the birdbath)
8-)
LMAO! I'm way going to tell her this. "The bees would only be attracted to your pool if there was a high salt content in it. Someone must be peeing in your pool."
The dry chlorine is sodium hypochlorate. Breaks down into salt (sodium chloride) and free chlorine. So there's another salt source.
Plus generous amount of sweat and pee. :evil:
8-)
We swim in the pool with the bees. We give them their own landing pad. You can watch them zoom in and out. If you get between them and the hives they will give you a fly-by. No one has been stung yet.
(http://s14.postimage.org/hrkuzlql9/000_0038.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/hrkuzlql9/)
i setup some tubs on the other side of the house from the bees. I also planted lemongrass around it and it has taken off. then dead leaves fall into tub and the bees land on the wet lemongrass dead leaves and suck the water up off the leaf. ive tried the floating boards, tried sticks under the faucet, they prefer to land on the plant parts.
Oooo, excellent idea! I've got plenty of space around that I could plant some lemongrass in, and I could make a decorative little pond in the middle of it. Thanks!