Welcome to ATP!

Welcome to ATP and the beekeeping forum Edie.

Congratulations on your first hive. It's a wonderful hobby to have.
Dave has a top bar hive so he can probably answer any questions about the hive.
Any other questions I'll try to answer if I can.

Edie!

to ATP!!!! And to beekeeping!

Hi to everyone!! I'm still just a lurker who has dreams of beekeeping some day, hopefully soon! I really enjoy keeping up with what everyone is doing here and all the info Mindy has to offer.

Tom and Ranedie, I hope you will keep us informed of your bee adventures.

I know this response is a bit late but...The only time I have ever been stung by my girls was when mowing near the hive. The frequency of vibration created by some mowers sets off alarms in some colonies. I agree with the other comments in that another contributing factor was that your ladies were under a lot of stress at the time.

Since that sting I have changed the typ of hat I wear while playing outside. The cap I had on at the time had an opening in the bach where the size of the cap can be adjusted. Don't wear those around a nervous hive.

Not a good idea to wear that kind of cap when they are being curious either. I've had them get in my hair through that opening while weeding well away from their hives. Didn't get stung but took me a bit to get them out of my hair.

Hi Mindy,

I may have missed any posts regarding this question, my apologies if so. My question is ~ do you have any trouble with little ants getting into your hives and robbing? If so, what has worked for you in eliminating that?

Thank you,
Toni

HI Toni. We use cinnamon sprinkled around the inside top of the hive and around the outside of it to deter ants. You'll have to re-apply it after rains but it works really good for us. Cinnamon doesn't harm the bees and they don't seem to care that it's in their hive.

I've seen numerous videos and blog posts talking of placing the feet of your hive stands in old coffee cans or other such containers and then pouring a few inches of used motor oil into the container. This effectively creates a "Moat" around the leg of the stand which the ants cannot cross toget to the stand/hive. I haven't tried this as I have not had the ant problem yet but it sounds like a workable solution to me. I would be interested to hear any "been-there-done-that" stories from you folks.

As I write this it occurs to me that this could cause an issue during a heavy rain where the oil is displaced by rain water and then creates an environmental spill issue. What about used cooking oil?

This is how a friend of mine did it.

http://bubbatanicals.com/blog/...

Motor oil is also recommended for use. That method won't work for our hive stands because they don't have legs on them.

For some reason the video won't work for me. It's an issue with my computer as none will work for me. I'll fix it one of these days.

Well, unfortunately, I don't need to worry about the ants anymore. More once huge, thriving, healthy, wonderful hive has froze to death. Broke my heart!! I will try to find a swarm and start over this spring. However, I learned a lot watching the above video from Bubbatanical posted by Arlene. Thanks for posting Abhege

So sorry you lost you hive Toni This winter has been one for the record books for sure. Now you can look forward to catching a swarm or two if you're up to it. Never give up.

Toni I'm sorry to hear you lost your hive. So sad when that happens. I hope you catch a couple of swarms to replace the bees.
We've lost 5 hives so far. We decided this winter to let the bees fend for themselves as far as food went. We did make sure everyone had enough but those 5 evidently ate theirs much faster than the ones that made more than enough to get through the winter. Our reasoning is that it is not a good idea to keep weak hives. Now we just have to get the other 5 through until mid February.

It is sad but somewhat comforting in a way to know that even the experienced apiaries loose hives. I just wished I could prevent that. I sure do get attached to them. Thank you for the encouragement

I think I heard my son say we lost a hive too.

We lost one more hubby thinks to freezing so we are down to 4 hives to get through a few more weeks.

I have heard of people having just one hive for 30 plus years. How in the world do they do it! That is what I was planning on doing

Depends on where they live and how they manage their bees. Though if you think about it they don't have the same bees they started with since bees don't live that long even with the best of care.