Though Scott's the question wasn't directed to me and it is raining so I have some extra time today I will reply. I pretty much do the same as Grant with a lot of my hives but on the truck farms I do ask for some food in exchange for the bees being there. It is a verbal agreement, I get to leave the hives 24/7 with 100% truck access. I may get 1/2 bushel of cucumbers or tomatoes near the end of the season, just something to pay me for being reliable as far having strong hives there to get the pollination done. The farms do not spray, we have a very strong organic association in Maine that really puts time into education. The crops on these farm are all the types of vegetables you would find at a farmers market along with a lot of cut flowers, things like smaller sunflowers, asters, delphinium and such to sell in small bouquets. They grow a lot of those short sunflowers with the smaller head and my bees are usually all over them making the field workers nervous. The nectar sources around the farms are good, there are wide swaths with power lines, hay fields and wooded areas that have early pollen from trees. The hive production varies year to year because of weather, this year we are having a lot of rainy days, but it usually is 65 to 35 pounds for each hive which is decent for Maine. I do treat for mites, usually with formic acid, Mite Away II in the past, MAQS now, ApiGuard, and used some Hopguard last summer just to knock down the mites since we had such a warm winter. I use pollen patties on every hive in the early spring and fall, feed in the fall, some hives need candy boards in the winter, some need syrup in the spring. Feeding is by the need of each hive. I have not used an antibiotic on my hives in years, I do put some bleach in the syrup, mainly to prevent mold. One thing I recommend to people keeping bees in out yards is to write your name and cell phone number on a few of the boxes on different sides in big letters (no one wants to get close to the hive to read), because they will call you if something is up. I try to prevent swarming but it doesn't always work, the field crew always will call to tell me "the queen has left the hive". I had a lady call me last week who had a swarm in her yard that had not landed yet they came from somewhere in her neighborhood and she said, "I think I have a queen bee in my yard", it took some questioning to find out what she was talking about. I find it funny that some people do not use the word swarm. The discussion on Bee-L about Pierco foundation earlier this year got me brave enough to try it. It is so easy to use and the bees are doing fine on it. I got the black 9 5/8 and snapped it into grooved frames, I started out rolling them with extra wax, I did 200 of them and then just couldn't spend the time doing it so the last 100 are going in with no extra wax. I guess I will see if it makes a difference. I also got some white for shallow supers and was disappointed it was just cut down from larger pieces so one edge would not fit into grooved frames, I had to use wedged, a little more time consuming. I still like using wooden frames. Right now I have 65 hives. Karen T-K Maine *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html