Under the screen, like a silent witness, however, my sticky boards recorded the mouse’s night reconnaissance by recording pieces of the chewed comb. Inadvertently, the bees hide early mouse forays into the hive. The bees repair the small amount of comb damage the next day as they reoccupy the unguarded comb, erasing any signs of the mouse’s intrusion. They can enter the hive for a quick taste of pollen and honey (see Figure 2). These wax pieces were larger than the much finer wax bits resulting from bees chewing comb during day-to-day brood nest activities (see Figure 1).Įven when the days remain warm with plenty of bee flight, though the nights turn cool enough for the bees to cluster, leaving peripheral comb exposed, mice gain the advantage. As the mice chewed the combs, bits of wax fell on the sticky boards. What about the transition in the fall? When I monitored varroa mite populations in about 100 top-bar hives with screen floors and sticky boards, I could tell the very first mouse incursions into the hives. Perhaps though, the bees endured the cold without being visited by foraging mice, which might be just good fortune, hardly a management plan.Ĭomb pests change with the seasons, leaving wax moths in the summer heat, and turning to mice in the winter cold. Plain Talk Beekeeping: The Basics … and then someĭid you put mouse guards on your hives? Depending on the local mouse populations, which vary by location and winter season, bee colonies could have suffered considerable comb damage.
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