New member, new beehive. I sign on with user name Bobbru. I have a new hive with a demetered queen and 4.6 pounds of bees. All is well after one full month. The hive is in a ant area and I placed it on concrete blocks in a 3 inch high tub with water. Waloo! no ants. I am following the state Demetered standards and keeping no pesticides in or near the hive. The queen and bees were shipped from Bearfoothoney.com. They are in Santa Rosa CA. Their bees are very mild and are Italian in origin.
I am 74 and fully retired from IBM.
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Can you add your location in your profile and hope you in joy your beekeeping.
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
Welcome to the wonderful would of beekeeping and welcome to the forum
Welcome to this forum!
I also keep my hives in an ant environment. The water-trap works nicely, but be sure not to get any long grass or anything near the hive gowing high and touching the hive and thus making a bridge for the ants. If your area is very hot and you can risk loosing all the water to damp, you can add a bit of (food type of) oil on the top of the water, and you won't loose as much.
My water trap worked like a charm, but I had to make some sort of roof over it as I lost quite a lot of bees without it. They missed the landing board and hit the oily water and died.
As I have the same ant problems as you, I would be glad to hear about any other tips or trick you might have :-)
Bobbru, welcome to our forum. So nice that you have decided to keep bees, and they are doing well. Enjoy your stay with us, here you will make new friends and have a place to tell your stories, tales and experiences, we love to listen. Have the most wonderful and awesome day, Cindi
Welcome Bobbru. What is a demetered queen?