Subject: Guard bees and ants

From: [email-masked] (Ron Prine)
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 94 02:52:20 GMT

I have recently started a hive and I have been having a great time watching
them.  This last weekend I noticed that some ants have been going into the
hive by way of the inner cover.  It does not appear that the ants are living
up there, but they are after some honey.  Is this something to worry about and
is there something I can do to stop this, or should I just live with this as
part of normal beekeeping.

  As to the guards, I noticed that they do patrol for the ants and do keep
them from entering by bottom board entrance.  My hive are set on cinder blocks
and I have now noticed some guards taking positions on the ends of the block
nearest to the hive entrance.  They were doing a nice job of keeping the ants
from coming up that way, but they are still coming up by the block in the back
of the hive.

(First hive notes)
  Checked brood, and this queen is doing one heck of a job laying.  Row after
row of laid eggs, with none skipped and every cell on frame used.  Since this
hive had all frames in use except for one that was untouched (on hot side of
hive, move to cool side) I decided to move up addition of next super.  They
seemed to appreciate the room.  Now I am waiting for the workers to get going
(I figure there is about 10 days till they get out and about).

Thanks for the help

--
Ron Prine	DoD #1435		[email-masked]

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From: Robert Allen Stevens <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 94 19:52:07 -0500

Ron, this is one of the most common questions we get from beekeepers on
our 800 number - In tropical countries, the ants can be a problem -
up here in the North - they just coexist - often setting up colonies between
the inner cover and the outer cover. They are after a cool dark place -
not the honey - a queen rite colony never has any problem keeping them at bay.
Just knock them off the inner cover everytime you open the hive. Your colony
is doing fine - don't be afraid to feed them until 20 frames of foundation
are drqa(drawn) - less foragers outside mean more laying inside - call
us at 800-6323379 for a beekeeping catalogue - Bob

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From: [email-masked] (David J. Harry)
Date: Sun, 3 Jul 1994 16:40:24 GMT

>,... the ants can be a problem -
>up here in the North - they just coexist - 

They may not be a problem in New York, but they are a *major* problem here 
in the Central Valley of CA.  A bee colony can quickly become completely 
overrun by foraging ants.  Eventually the bees will just leave!

There was a discussion of this problem in the American Bee Journal some 
months ago. Some of the responses advocated treating the surrounding soil 
with oil, an environmentally unacceptable solution IMO.

I personally deal with ants by placing my colonies on specially constructed 
benches.  The legs are placed in small pails that I keep filled with 3-4 
inches of water.  This provides 100% protection from ants.  Another 
effective method is to wrap aluminum foil around the legs of the benches and 
smear it with heavy grease. Incidently, if you decide to use the water pail 
method, make sure you build a small plywoood shelf that projects out from 
the front legs and prevents bees from falling into the front leg pails.  You'
d be surprised how many bees will be trapped when falling from the hive 
entrance, eventually leading to a smelly and unhygeinic mess.