Bees refusing syrup

[Finman]

Pyrethrin? Inside the hive?

Typical English poking...

 

[understanding_bees]

Why do you always write like you are giving a speech in a school debating society?

If I have a particular style, it is probably the consequence of my responsibilities as a documentation specialist during the latter years of my professional working life.
I wish to avoid ambiguity, but have been amazed how some people have nevertheless managed to misconstrue and twist some of my comments.

 

[Finman]

Pyrethrin? Inside the hive?

Hive has outside too and the ant hive is outside the hive.

 

[understanding_bees]

@understanding_bees

Are there any alternative methods you can use to grow your strawberries which might be less attractive to the earwigs? If on a small scale could some sort of vertically layered hydroponic system using repurposed drain pipes work?

No.

 

[Finman]

If I have a particular style, it is probably the consequence of my responsibilities as a documentation specialist during the latter years of my professional working life.
I wish to avoid ambiguity, but have been amazed how some people have nevertheless managed to misconstrue and twist some of my comments.

You are reinventing a wheel. Nothing else is not needed. And you want that a wheel is square.

 

[Boston Bees]

f I have a particular style, it is probably the consequence of my responsibilities as a documentation specialist

You mean, you did the filing?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Typical English poking...

No. It’s a serious question. That’s how your reply looked. I apologise if my reply seemed otherwise

 

[Finman]

No. It’s a serious question. That’s how your reply looked. I apologise if my reply seemed otherwise

Jenkin's answers were not much more better. Impossible to know when guys are making fun with their answers.

 

[Wilco]

Jenkin's answers were not much more better. Impossible to know when guys are making fun with their answers.

I think the question here is what you each meant by 'ants inside the hive'. Correct me if I'm wrong but thought JBM referred to ants under the roof but above the crown/cover board. I wasn't sure if you meant the same or were talking about ants actually inside the main part of the hive?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Or maybe bats in the belfry

 

[Finman]

I think the question here is what you each meant by 'ants inside the hive'. Correct me if I'm wrong but thought JBM referred to ants under the roof but above the crown/cover board. I wasn't sure if you meant the same or were talking about ants actually inside the main part of the hive?

That ant thing is not so difficult. Only place, where the ants can be is on the loft between ceiling board and the insulation. They cannot make the nest inside the hive where the bees are.

When the ants have nest so, some ants can go into the hive between the frames. In my hives it is so. Bees are nervous, even it they meet one ant inside.

When I carry a hive into the forest, next day I will find a nest with ant eggs under the insulation. Ants are small black ones.

I don't want to incubate any ant nest under my hive roof.

 

[Finman]

Or maybe bats in the belfry

True. Bats love to listen shurch bells when they are sleeping.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Typical English poking...

Did that once, it was fun for a while, but we weren't really compatible so we both went our separate ways but I think it was a bit extreme for her to move to Nigeria!

 

[Finman]

Did that once, it was fun for a while, but we weren't really compatible so we both went our separate ways but I think it was a bit extreme for her to move to Nigeria!

Such humour...

 

[hemo]

When talking ants, one (finman) was speaking of wood ant's they are a much larger ant and have powerful mandible's that easily chomp thru wood or any other non metal substrate so are a hazard/danger for hives of wood or poly design, and the other (JBK) was speaking of the garden ant.
Typically the UK one's encountered are the small Red or Black garden ant they generally nest in soft sandy type soil and are sweet feeders. Both use a pheromone for trails to sources of forage and the nest, the garden ant poses little or no threat to a bee hive except a nuisance if allowed to set up home under the roof.
Two different specie are being spoken of here and both are chalk and cheese to how they operate and cause damage or harm.

The UK does have wood ant's but unless you site your hives in fir tree forests are unlikely to have an issue with them.

 

[user 20297]

I had some ants trying to steal syrup from above the crownboard in one of my hives. None of the ants appeared to have got inside the boxes and most of them had drowned.

 

[Boston Bees]

Two different specie are being spoken of here and both are chalk and cheese to how they operate and cause damage or harm.

Which is why I am always a bit baffled that an Australian beekeeper feels the need to join a UK-based beekeeping forum.

I wouldn't even think about joining an Australian forum, as my experiences would be irrelevant to them and would merely risk misinforming new beekeepers about what to worry about and what not to worry about.

 

[hemo]

Yes they (the garden ant) will sweet feed above the CB if they can but I have never encountered them in an occupied hive. The bigger issue are slugs who will move in because of some condensation that forms in hives whether wood or poly it has to exit the hive somewhere and the walls are the main areas and sometimes the internal top rails/gulley's if moisture gathers.

 

[hemo]

Which is why I am always a bit baffled that an Australian beekeeper feels the need to join a UK-based beekeeping forum.

I wouldn't even think about joining an Australian forum, as my experiences would be irrelevant to them and would merely risk misinforming new beekeepers about what to worry about and what not to worry about.

It's good to have other perspective's from other nation's but we do have to think about the context and locations when offering advice and/of experience's encountered. What suits those in one country as we know has no meaning or is of use in another.

Cross over talk of this and that is often encountered but the posters don't think too much about the other location and the conditions that may be different.

One that also stands out is the do you supply water thread that started via the Aus poster, it had no bearing to the UK as we are surrounded by water and copious watering places for the bees to visit. In Aus it was about supplying water due to heat evaporation and lack of sources and over here it became a supplying of alternative source to stop bees visiting other gardens because of a nuisance factor of forage collection..

 

[Finman]

When talking ants, one (finman) was speaking of wood ant's w

I did not talk about big wooden ants. Its name is horse ant in Finland, and it dig tunnels in rottening wood. It does not have sting.

I spoke about black small ants, which move easily to the loft of hives. There are quite many black ant species in Finland.

There is one ant here, blood ant. It attacks on beehives too. It uses black ants as slaves. It makes its nest tunnels underground. And nest can be 20 metres wide.