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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Randy Chellis <crandytoo AT aol.com>, ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] black ants
  • Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 23:12:57 -0500

Randy,

Ants can be alarming or annoying to see but I've never known them to be a genuine problem. I often have them in feeders, on the top of the inner cover, around the outer seams, but never on the combs themselves. I ignore them and that works for me. I do clean out piles of dead ones from the feeders.

If you do want to do something, the classic response is to set each leg of your bee stand in a can partially filled with oil. The oil acts as an ant moat. Of course this only works if you have stands with legs.

I try hard not to mess with my bees unless I know the reason I'm doing so. This is especially important in winter. That doesn't mean I neglect them -- it means I plan my inspections and have a purpose for doing them. This time of year, what will you do if you find a problem? If the hive is queenless, you can't requeen now. There shouldn't be much if any brood so you can't swap brood frames with another hive or even judge the hive's status by looking at the broodnest. The only inspection I would recommend is to lift the hive from the back to assess how much weight it has. Heavy is good, light means FEED. If you are very curious, you can raise the inner cover, quickly look between the frames and see how many frames are covered by bees. Don't pull frames out -- there is no need to. Or you can just press your ear to the side of the brood box and give the box a rap with your knuckles. The load buzz you hear in response will give you a hint as to how many bees you have. If you don't hear anything at all, THEN it is time to lift the cover.

Why would you want to feed pollen patties this time of year? Pollen equals brood. If you are building up your hive for very early pollination or want to sell early nucs, then maybe pollen is called for at this time of year. Otherwise, lots of brood now is just more mouths to feed over winter. Where I live, we have plenty of natural pollen starting in January (red maple). I don't need to feed pollen. Your area may be different. Assessing protein levels in a hive is a whole other detailed topic, but basically, if you've got pollen stored in the combs you don't need to feed it. Feeding pollen when it isn't needed is great for hive beetles but doesn't help your bees.

That's my philosophy; others may have different opinions.

Randall Austin

On 11/26/2014 11:09 PM, Randy Chellis via ocba wrote:
8D1D80F0BC47394-1BD0-1FA6D AT webmail-vm047.sysops.aol.com" type="cite">I have 2 hives next to each other, 1 is much stronger then the other.  I have top feeders on both hives with lots of bees taking the sugar water on the strong hive and hardly any bees on the weak hive.  lately I have been seeing black ants around and inside the hives, in the weak hive there were many dead ants in the syrup on the bees side of feeder and none on the strong hive.   So my question is will the bees take care of the large black ants?  or can I do something to help get rid of them.    also is this bad that the syrup on the weak hive is full of dead ants?   thanks for any help   also would it be a bad thing if I was to go into my weak hive this thanksgiving weekend to check on the hive and what should I be looking for at this stage.
PS also should I be adding a pollen patty along with the syrup at this time of year


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  • [ocba] black ants, Randy Chellis, 11/26/2014
    • Re: [ocba] black ants, Randall Austin, 11/27/2014

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