Hey Steve!
I dont know about lime around the hives for Fire ants. I dont think It'll hurt anything but dont take my answer for gospel.
I use Amdro fire ant bait. You've seen it at walmart i bet.Now, like I just mentioned a second ago My answer isnt gospel on this either but i didnt see the bees getting in it or eating it or anything like that, and my bees havent been sick either. I just chucked it around my hive stand area(my hives are off the ground about 18 inches) and it appeared to get rid of the ants(I only use it for fire ants as I have Horney toads here and they eat the other bigger ants.I dont want to poison the horney toads.There will be more advice from other people for you here real soon too!
Oh yeh,...I'll go ahead and tell you this before anybody else does on this forum(makes me feel important.....hee hee). Go ahead into your profile and change your location from hopelessly lost to where you really live. This makes it easier for people here to give you the correct advice on bees for the area where you live.(unless you're a mass murderer or organ harvester or something like that)
Good luck, and I hope you like this place...We all do!!
your friend,
john