Whats the big attraction?

[Savorys]

My bees seem to be using a neighbour's warm water discharge pipe as a watering hole.
It is a dry cleaning business, and one of the machines constantly flows a stream of luke warm water into a gulley.
The bees alite on the pipe and make their way down to the gentle outlet flow and I assume they are taking water on board, unless like me, they prefer their bathwater warm!
The problem is that it's causing 'bee congestion' in an area where the business users pass.
I can imagine a conflict arising.
How can I discourage the bees from using this particular location?
It is about 25 yards from my hives, and the bees have more convenient water access closer to the hives if they choose to use it.
Could it be the warm water?
I could fabricate a cover plate and seal the outlet over, but maybe there is an easier option?

[Cable_Fairy]

Ah bees drinking, I can not give you any ideas of what to do, mine have a bird bath, a bucket filled with soil and a layer of moss on top, within 5 yards a layer of moss on top of a wall inches deep and trees covered with moss. However they fly over the house to a small bird bath and alight on leaves floating on the water, I am forever dragging them out and putting them onto dry land before they drown, they do not appear to be very good swimmers!

[AdamD]

Now the bees have gotten used to their watering hole, they will probably use it for a while. A cover plate of some sort for a while should stop them, even cling-film or something to keep them out. If there is something else nearby they will (hopefully) finish up using that instead although they don't always do what we want!

[MickBBKA]

My bees drink my next door neighbours bird bath dry sometimes twice a day. Its in full sun and they never drink from mine which is in the shade of the fence. It would make sense for them to drink warm water rather than get chilled drinking cold.

Cheers, Mick.

[NigelP]

You add one of those tropical fish tank water heaters to yours and see if they now "drink" the warm stuff.

[Patrick]

It’s a really good point often overlooked about siting hives.

I had bees on an allotment once. They caused a bit of an issue when they took to drinking from communal water troughs. I ended up moving them anyway but it was an unexpected bother.