Where I am, the average rainfall according to weather.com during the 180 days of May through October only averages .88 of an inch. But from December to April, there is lots of nectar. My problem in the past is that the bees couldn't take advangage of most of this due to numbers, but I have solved it by combining hives. I'm already harvesting from the eucalyptus locations, and I've recently re-queened so I'm optimistic about hive strength this season. The two other management problems that I have are very early swarming, as in Feb-March, and the bees moving up. I hope that the new queens will help with the swarming problems, but I thought I'd try to keep them down using excluders, and since crowding contributes to swarming, I was thinking Murrays method may help. But I plan on doing what was suggested and do it with just a few at first. Just something else to throw out, the beekeeper I worked for briefly in 1983 used to say that the mustard caused the bees to swarm. The hills here are covered with it early in the year, and whether it's just coincidence or something about the abundance and quality of the pollen, I don't know. Thanks again Tim Vaughan :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::