One dry spring I had a similar problem. The bees in a wintering yard holding 100 hives started visiting a horse waterer about a half a mile away. To solve the problem, the ranch cowboys only watered the horses in the morning and evening. The rest of the time they kept the water trough sealed from bees with a piece of plywood.

Meanwhile, I gave the bees an alternate source of water much closer to the bee yard using a 45 gallon plastic drum that gravity fed a chicken waterer. After a week, the bees had switched sources.

This may be kinda off topic but I had another incident at the same ranch one spring. A bee got hanging around the ranch shop looking for something to do. The mechanic held his hand out and the bee landed on his finger. He was watching her clean her antenna when an irrigator happened along and saw this. The irrigator was surprised to see the mechanic holding a bee given their ability to sting. The mechanic convinced the irrigator that all the bees on the ranch were tame. 

You can see where this is going. A truck full of irrigators drove up to my wintering yard and one got out to show the others that all bees are tame. He did this by sticking his hand in an entrance. When he started getting stung, his coworkers locked the truck doors so he had to run for it. In my experience, men almost always enjoy watching other men get stung by bees. Why is that?

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