Hi All Today I made my twice weekly pilgimage to my favourite apiary site where I have about twenty hives (depending on how many have been turned on their sides by baboons/wild pigs/cows/humans etc). The are is in an interesting region in that the total yearly rainfal is about 240ml (10 inches), so it is dry. Through this region runs a river which has been boosted with a large interbasin water transfer schem from a river about 600km (400mi) inland, so it flows year round but should not. The farmers grow alfalfa/lucerne, sunflowers and a bit of canola/rape. These flower here from about september till late march/april depending on the year. After that the aloes (succulents like the agave) kick in and give a formidable honey flow. These are composed of three species groups with one flowering in april, one from then till end of june, and then next from august. There is also the karree (Rhus lancea), named by the Khoisan as the honey tree (karee) which flowers from the rivers over this period. So I should be producing lots of honey. But, today when I visited the apiary I found that I had a pod of 26 fork tailed drongas (irritating agile birds that feed almost solely on bees at this time of year) nailing every single bee that left a hive. I shot 3 of them, and now then ramain carefully at a distance of 200m from any human - it is impossible to kill any more. The birds originate from a government programme to cut down eucalyptus trees to conserve water. As a result, their traditional realms in eucalyptus plantations hawking bees during the winter flows has been destroyed and they have migrated inland to the aloes and are decimating an otherwise excelent bee keeping region. What I would be interested to know is if anybody on the group has devised a way of getting rid of surpluss, or had any experience with intelligent apiniverous birds? I used to view them as a blessing as they shut hives down normally at about 4.00pm when it gets cold and one would lose more bees to chill if they risked going out, but now with this overpopulation of them they are keeping the hives quiet the whole day. Any advice or ideas would be appreciated Thanks Garth Who is thinking that that last chance at getting a honey flow in this year is slowly vanishing. Garth Cambray Camdini Apiaries Grahamstown Apis mellifera capensis Eastern Cape Prov. South Africa Time = Honey After careful consideration, I have decided that if I am ever a V.I.P the I. may not stand for important. (rather influential, ignorant, idiotic, intelectual, illadvised etc)