Ants have discovered the sweet oasis from the hive and they have been mobilizing themselves to take over the colony. I opened up the hive last week and the ants have used the inner cover board to carry ant eggs about a thousand of them to be hatched above the hive. I check the hive every week otherwise, I'll be keeping ants. The ants has made the bees edgy and it has made beekeeping more challenging. The bees have shorter temper as they are more defensive throughout the day. I've been wearing gloves to not get stunk. They have also been propolizing cracks around the inner cover to stop ants from coming into the hive.
I have since placed the hive over a stand that is surrounded by a pool of cooking oil to prevent the ants from climbing into the hive. So far that has managed to reduce the amount of ants significantly.There are still ants but I think they are climbing in from the overhanging weeds. I used pasta bottle lids to hold the oil and some unused Ikea parts to create the stand.
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