I am new to this forum and have been reading till my eyes are bleeding ... ;)
Great site you have here.
My question is I have 6 hives and its been real dry in Southern Ohio and I have noticed lots of very big flys around the hives and inside some of them is there any reason to be concerned or are they just looking for some free food because of the dry weather ?
Thanks Deerhunter
the only time i have had a lot of flys is when i had a lot of dead bees. you might want to check on that.
The government released flies a few years back around here to help kill off something (not sure if it was gypsy moths, mosquitoes, or whatever). Anyway, I too have a lot of black flies around my hives for a couple years now with no apparent harm. The biggest issue I have is when I'm working in a hive and these flies keep landing on your arms and suck the sweat off. Instinct wants me to think it is a bee, but the flies create more pressure, so I get the feeling I'm about to bee stung. Real annoying. I also find some wintering between the inner cover and top cover, but other than that, no problem with them.