You might see if you can locate the hive. If you can, and want it relocated, you can try to find a local beekeeper through your county.

How would one go about locating a bee hive? Thanks for the suggestion, btw.

Okay, so here's the deal. They're coming to your pool because it's the closest source of water to their hive/colony. You're not going to be able to get rid of the bees without locating the hive and having it removed. Chances are, they have established a nest (hive) in the wall of one of your neighbor's houses. You didn't describe your neighborhood or the area in which you live, so I'm guessing as to the most likely scenario (for instance, their hive could be in the trunk of a tree rather than the exterior wall of a house). Nevertheless, unless they've sat up house keeping in the wall of your home, you're probably not going to be able to do anything about them unless their hive can be located and you get the cooperation of the property owner of that house. (However, a call to the city, complaining about nuisance/dangerous animals could help spur a less than cooperative neighbor into doing something about them - most cities have ordnances against maintianing such critters - even if they do allow beekeeping in your city).

Now as to your last question. You will have to have someone with sharp eyes (a younger person), carefully watch the bees as they depart from drinking your water. Most likely as the bee rises, she might make a circle or two but then she will unmistakably head off in a certain direction (every heard of "making a bee line" to somewhere?). If she circles, she's just getting her bearings in relation to the sun and then by gosh, she headin' directly home!

An "old timers" trick is to spread a few drops of honey on a paper plate to entice them to come to your location [your water is already serving this purpose]. And then, as they gather 'round to collect the honey, you douse them with some white flour - that makes them easier to see when they fly off. This gives you the direction but not their distance. So then, you move the paper plate with honey in the direction you see them fly off and repeat the process until you "track" them to their home location. Chances are, the hive is not too far away from your pool if you are seeing "lots" of honeybees in your pool area (within one or two hundred yards...but could be further). The hive is also likely to be up off the ground by 15 feet or so...got any two story houses near by?

Good luck and happy swimming!

Thank you txbeeguy! This helps a lot. We don't live in a neighborhood, but there is an abandoned old brick ranch not more than 300 ft from our house. We live in a heavily forested area, so they could be in trees, but I'll bet you're right about the house. Thank you so much for your suggestion...will try the flour trick tomorrow. Sure do appreciate you taking the time to explain this to me. Will keep you posted on the relo effort.

Wow. That's great info. I didn't even know bees drank water...duh. :) I will *bee* sure to bookmark this post for future reference!

Can you please give me some suggestions for getting rid of bees that are living in the walls of my house. We have an aluminum sided house, in a heavily wooded area (not sure where they're source of water is), and we've tried plugging the holes. All that does is reroute them into our sun-room. we've tried sprays and that keeps them away for a few days but never a permanent fix. We've even tried to use nature against nature by catching a few HUGE spiders from the front of our house and move them to the area of the bee's entrance/exit. (so far, no action with the spiders) What now????