STEVE PHILLIPS wrote: > > I've always had a purple martin house, but since I've started keeping > bees I wonder if I need to get rid of the martin house. Since I've started > keeping bees I've noted a marked increase in the number of martins that > hang out on the power lines near my martin house. (I counted over 40 > one day.) Do martins eat bees? Can martins have an effect on hive > population or does a healthy hive raise enough brood that it isn't a > problem? Are the martins likely to get the queen on her mating flight? Hi Steve - I don't know first hand but the commercial beekeeper that I have gotten nucs from in the past told me that purple martins are notorious for catching queens out on mating flights and that he has lost ?-numbers of queens due to this. -Barry -- Barry Birkey West Chicago, Illinois USA [log in to unmask] http://www.birkey.com