ANTS!!! . . . and a weird spring

[Kris^]

So I went to my stack of supers the other day to pull a few more off for installation on more hives, and what did I find?  ANTS!!!  Thousands of big black ant, that had apparently set up colonies in the stacks of supers.  I disturbed them alright; reminded me of 40+ years ago when I attacked an ant colony with a shovel and a garden hose.   :shock:  They were dragging their larvae off to who-knows-where, as I banged the boxes on the concrete to clear them out.  I saw several larger ants that had wings, too -- would these be queens?  There was more than one, but only one for every several hundreds/thousand wingless ones.  Maybe Cody could tell?

I've been more involved with other things this spring, and haven't been as "intense" with the bees as previous years.  It was disappointing the go from 12 hives in late summer last year to 5 hives this March.  But 5 are better than none.  I put supers on a couple of the strongest ones in mid-April, and split the largest one at the beginning of May, so I have 6 again.  I put the queen in the walkaway, and they have advanced to orienting new foragers; the cut-down should have a queen now, but I'll wait for a few more days or a week to check for eggs after her mating.  For better or worse, I have plenty of brood boxes (and supers) of drawn comb for the colonies to work with.  Maybe I can squeeze a few more splits out after the honey flow to build up before winter.

Bees are flying and colonies are growing, but they haven't been packing much honey away yet.  The evenings have been cool this spring -- we even had a frost earlier this week.  I think everything is going to be running at least two weeks later this year, due to the fits and starts we had bringing spring in.  Although I pulled a small amount of honey off last year in mid-May, June was really the month we started having a big flow, so we'll still wait and see how it goes this year.  Although they aren't producing honey, the bees sure did a good job pollinating this spring, though!  The apple and pear trees have oodles of fruit set, and even the peach tree looks like it'll FINALLY yield a significant amount this year.  Only the plum trees are barren, because they bloomed right before the last cold snap, which put the bees back in their hives for a week.   :(   

As I mentioned, this has been an otherwise busy spring for me, and I haven't participated a lot on the forum.  I'm still obsessed, though!   :-D   And dropping in when I can.  Hope everyone's year goes well.

-- Kris

[Brian D. Bray]

In one of my hives I found 2 big black juicy queen ants with wings.  I had my hive tool in hand so I quickly went into Ninja mode--Hiya--no more ants.  This is the time of year that Black ants are swarming, except they do it with solitary queens.  In September the Carpenter ants (Termites) do the same thing.  My next Ninja movie will be called: Flying bee, Swarming Ant.

[Sean Kelly]

I'm no ant expert and could be wrong, but don't drone ants also have wings?

Sean Kelly

[Kris^]

I'm no ant expert and could be wrong, but don't drone ants also have wings?

I dunno -- I know --> zip <-- about ants, except that they are social insects like bees.  They don't make honey, either.  :-D

-- Kris

[nepenthes]

*Edit*

im just gonna comment on this,

MAle ants are smaller than queens some times smaller then workers. Queen ants are larger and lose their wings (aka dealation) they are known as dealated queens, which is what you would find in a nest. So the queens with wings in the nest are new queens, that havent mated with a male. Depending on the species after they mate they dealate right away OR they continue to look for a nesting spot and dealate once they have the nest started.

If it was a big nest it could have just been a satalite colony, I had one in my Feeder and they moved on once I took out the feeder. Satalite colonys are colonys just where their isnt a queen but the colony got so big it needs extra space.

does that awnser any questions?

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Ants don't make honey? http://www.myrmecos.net/formicinae/myrmecocystus.html
Maybe it's not true honey (or farm able for that matter) but ants do collect nectar and store it in workers that usually never leave the colony. This is most common in the Formicinae Subfamily though so not all ants make honey.

As for ants in the hives. They're not described well enough for an ID but I would guess they are a Camponotus species. These are common black carpenter ants. At this time of year they are conducting their nuptial flights. New Queens and Males are winged. Camponotus nearcticus is a slightly smaller species of Camponotus that I commonly find in the attic of my hives. Frequently they nest in the abandoned hives I have but they can also manage to live in weaker hives too. They will nest in the wood but will also take advantage of the open space in the hive. It's not likely they harm the bees any but probably do steal some honey. Ants usually can't live on honey alone so it's likely their scouts are taking advantage of other bugs and expired bees. Ants don't eat much at all and can go months without food. But they are chewing away at the hive walls so it's best to dispatch them. As the beehive grows bigger the ants should eventually move out, especially with you disturbing them.

[Kris^]

Ants don't make honey? http://www.myrmecos.net/formicinae/myrmecocystus.html

Hmmmm . . .  I wonder how you would spin that out . . .   :evil:

-- Kris