In a message dated 97-05-01 15:02:38 EDT, you write:
 
<< Help wanted.  Calling all experts. . Has anyone successfully tackled the
 problem of bees ignoring the water supply in the apiary and going instead to
 a neighbour's pond?  Although I keep a supply in the apiary all the year
 round (bees here collect water as early as January) many of my bees prefer
 my pond some forty yards away.  Luckily I have no near neighbours to worry
 about.
 An acquaintance has just come to me with this problem.  His neighbour is at
 present sympathetic but is worried about his children getting stung and is
 expecting the beekeeper to work a miracle and stop all the bees from
 visiting the pond.  The bees have a supply well laid out and warmed by the
 sun in the apiary.
 Is there any way in which the apiary supply can be made very attractive or,
 alternatively, the pond supply made unattractive (there are no fish to worry
 about)?
 It is a situation which arises every year but I have never been faced with
 it and do not know the answer.  If I can get a number of replies, helpful or
 otherwise, I can at least print them out for passing to the neighbour to
 show that we have taken the matter seriously and consulted beekeepers from
 all over the world.                      Sid P.
  >>
Good question Sid!
 
I know a few beekeepers who lost the use of apiary sites, all because of the
water problem.
I read that if you spray vineagar around where the bees are taking water it
will act as a repelant, I haven't tried it myself, but it sounds like it
might help.
 
Good Luck
Rich Blohm, NY