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I have two hives that have been in five days. One hive has small ants getting in the hive top feeder sugar water and about 1/3 of the sugar water left.

The other hive has no sugar water and no ants.

We will be inspecting the hive Saturday.

Should we refill the sugar water now or wait until Saturday?

And can we treat the ground around the hive with anything for the ants?

Welcome to the forum. Please put your location (city or county is specific enough if in NC) in your profile since all beekeeping is local. It helps in figuring what is happening when. We have a few out of state members and several from surrounding counties. All are welcome.

Given the season we are having and relatively abundant nectar, I would err on the side of caution and not disturb the queen introduction process by reloading the feeder until you check on her for a successful release. (I am assuming you installed packages with new queens in queen cages.)

I would not be too concerned about the ants unless they are an aggressive type that raid the bee brood. (I have not seen any do this on a healthy hive.) At the last NCSBA meeting, one of the inspectors said you could put something like boric acid and powdered sugar in a container under the hive. The ants would go to it, carry it back to the colony and kill it. I have not tried it.

You can mix boraxo, "much cheaper than boric acid" and sugar in equal amounts and place it under the hive in a protected area where the bees cannot get to it. It will kill them, too. It is true that the ants will carry it back to the nest and kill the whole nest.

If you like ants, you can use cinnamon under the hive and it will deter them and you don't have to worry about the bees getting into it.

If it has been 5 days since you installed them, I would think it safe to add feed to a hive top feeder if you don't lift the feeder off the hive body.

Thanks for the quick replies! We made some more sugar water and will just lift the cover and put some more in both. I will try the boric acid/boraxo at the bottom of the cinder block.