First, if they are using your pool for water, they are probably close by, which you probably already know.
You mentioned alternate water source, that seems to me the best thing. Remember, it has to be there 100% of the time. If it goes dry even once, they may stop using it. I don't know if putting a feeder right by the alternate water will attract their interest, but may be worth trying. Then you may want to try a barrier to make it hard to get to the pool. They make pool covers out of heavy duty pool grade vinyl that are a little like bubble wrap. These can be cut to fit the exact shape of your pool. You can cut yours so that it is a little snug by say, 1/2 an inch and the edge rides on the side of the pool, making it very difficult for the bees to get to the water. Once they are forced to take up a different source, they should show far less interest in your pool. Added plus of the cover, it keeps the pool cleaner and you should be able to start swimming 6 weeks earlier because it will warm up more. Covers run about $150 to $400 depending on the size of your pool (maybe only $40 for a hot tub)
Maybe some who knows more about it could comment on whether or not they are going after the salt and if you should consider salting the alternate source??
Ultimately, you may have to call your county and see if they have a bee removal program for bees that are a problem.
Just a note that I have never had my bees be the least bit aggressive around their water source. They get water in one of my nursery pots, and I work all the pots right beside and all around that one and they never give me a notice. Makes me wonder if you have africanized which are much more aggressive and swarm/attack in dangerous numbers, and should be removed anyway.

I would pour a gallon or two of Vinegar in the pool.

Here is a link that might be useful: removing bees

Bigpaws - Did you ever come up with a solution?
We have three bee hives. We had a standard hot tub and rarely had any bees on it. This winter we replaced the hot tub with a salt water tub, and now the bees are all over it. Thinking it must be the salt drawing them in. Going to try putting a salt block out by the hives, but wondering if you came up with any solutions?

Pretty powerful stuff!

Here is a link that might be useful: Insectacide

I don't think poison is the way to go, ...you might have killed off some hives.
Cyfluthrin is highly toxic to bees with an LD50 of 0.037 mg / bee

It's the salt/minerals they want. Bees use it to cure the honey. Put salt licks out or a bird bath with salty water and cover the pool to make it inaccessible and force them to go to the alternative source.

This is not an uncommon problem with salt pools. Please refer to this article below.

http://www.livescience.com/43103-bees-taste-with-feet.html

The pool cover mentioned elsewhere DOES NOT help. We have a solar cover on our saltwater pool and the bees seem more attracted to it than the exposed pool water.

Still looking for a fix.

We are absolutely having same HUGE problem in Phoenix with our salt water relatively small pool and the Honey beeS. At this rate our pool will be unusable. The solar blanket added to the problem giving bees a place to land and crawl to the edge to drink the water. We had about fifty bees this afternoon. We back on to preserve so there is no way we are going to find where the Honey bees are coming from — read they could be coming from 3 miles. Ultimately we don’t want to be killing hives anyhow. We have tried spray bottles with very concentrated soapy water — fail. Other suggestions?

See what others do...or you're the only one with pool? I wouldn't be worried with only 50 bees.

I live in Mesa, AZ at the base of a mountain and open desert all around. I also have a saltwater pool and the bees got to the point I couldn't even brush it or get near the pool. I don't have flowering plants around the pool and gave them an alternate water source. It did no good. I called The Bee Keeper 480-725-6050. They came the next day and sprayed a foam around the edge of the water. It does not kill the bees it just makes the water undesirable to them. It made the water cloudy for about an hour. You can swim immediately. By the next day there were no more bees. It was $168.00. Other neighbors have used them only needed them once.

I also had the same problem as my neighbor has thousands of bees for honey. I added 4 ounces of if liquid solar blanket 3 days in a role and the bees are gone. When they start to come back I know I need to add more and they go away. Only thing I found that works so far.

I just started having this problem today. They look like honey bees. I think someone nearby might have some hives but are not providing a watersource. I used this stuff on ants called Tero drop or something. They get into it, take it back to the hive, and they all die. Will this work on bees? Yes I know these could be wild bees and they could be someone's hive. I really dont care. It is my pool and if they are domesticated they should provide their own water for them. Just like if someone has a dangerous dog that runs freely if it shows up at someone else's house and tries to hurt their kids it is subject to getting dealt with. I see the bee keeper option but I dont think it should be upon me to pay someone $168 to put chemicals in my pool, again so my kid can play in them, to not hurt anyone's bees.

Matt G, I understand your viewpoint about it being your pool. With that said, I have a beehive on my property and we just put in a salt water pool this year. Our bees love to drink the water splashed around the pool decking, and this is in SPITE of a bucket of water (with added salt) that I put DIRECTLY next to their hive. So don't assume that if these are bees from a beekeeper's hive that they are wandering your way due to neglect on the keeper's part. Please don't poison the bees, they are so environmentally important.

Becky Boat Could you perhaps let me know what kind of foam this was the beekeeper was spraying? We also have this problem at our pool. We live in Switzerland. Any help is very much appreciated. Regards, Eveline

I am having the same problem every since my neighbors have let his mom put honey bees in their yard . I have tried asking her what to do to keep the bees out of my pool . She put a baby pool with water in front of the hives but that hasn’t worked . I saw her today and asked again , she very rudely said I put water out there that’s all I have to do so it’s your problem !! So now what ?? We can’t even swim with out them taking over the pool . Claims she’s the head of the bee keepers association so no one else I can go to.

We are still using algaecide once every three weeks. Bees leave our pool and fountain completely alone.

I see this is a Post from 8 years ago with comments a recent at June 2020. Has anyone found a reasonable solution as I have need dealing with the same problem all summer. The name of the foam or solution placed in the pool referenced before would be helpful!

I have the same problem. I think that the solar cover is part of the problem. When the solar cover is on the pool, the bees are all over it. But, when the solar cover is retracted and rolled up, the bees are still all over the solar cover rolled up on the reel. If I put a white cover over the reel, the bees disperse until the solar cover is back on the pool.

I think that the bees are attracted to the pattern made by the "bubble wrap" type layer on the bottom side of the cover. The bees see the pattern that it makes on the flat side of the cover and they confuse it with the pattern of their bee hive. So, I think that the attraction is simply confusion caused by the pattern in the pool cover.

I have that issue too. I put trays with acorns, pieces of my solar cover (upside down) and water from my pool. I change the water in the tray regularly and they much prefer the trays to trying to drink from the pool. They also do not like sunscreen, so make sure you sunscreen up and they'll swam to the trays and not you. The orange in this photo is because I started with a metal tray and it rusted. This is a plastic one.

It's not just salt water they want. We have a fresh water pool and it's not so much the water, but the white pipe around the return from the pool filter. My husband made valves where the water returns to the pool with 2 different shut offs. Depending how you adjust them one pipe returns the water directly in the pool. One has a spray head that sprays the water into the air over the pool to keep the water cooler in the summer because it gets way too warm if not. We live in South Texas, enough said and with adjustment it also makes water run down the slide.. The honey bees congregate all around the center of that pipe and more and more keep coming. Last year it was the white stair rail going into the pool, however we've been blessed so far, they are not aggressive at all. When I hook up the pool vacuum, I have to have my face ,hands and arms right in the middle of them swarming around me to get it hooked up and they haven't even attempted to bother me, Thank God!!

I was a little concerned at first, but so far so good. Anyway, just saying, it's not the salt.

We have a lot of Black Phoebes that visit our pool, and they are very good at catching insects that visit the pool

They eat all bees that fall into the pool, but we have a chlorinated pool. After reading this thread, I will not switch to a salt water pool. This is in Palm Springs.