How close do bees need to be to water?

[Matthias Smith]

I'm very new to bee keeping and was wondering how close my hive needs to be to water . We have a pond on our property but I am planning to put my bees about 250 yards away from it . is that close enough?

[BjornBee]

Yes thats good. The maximum a hive should have to go is about 1/4 mile. Beyond that its detrimental to the hive. 250 yards is no problem, but keep in mind they are opportunists, and will go no further than needed. This means if a nieghbors pool is closer, you may have problems.