I got sidetracked… I meant to clean out my wood shed… there was garbage in there that needed hauled and burned… and I had planned to haul some wood for my stove in there for the winter. But, hey, I had to haul the garbage away first, so I did that. Since the burn pit is down by the junk pile and I was right there, I decided to peek into my Bee Barn.
Now I knew I had lost that one hive, and I hoped it wasn’t overrun with mice even though I’d closed it up. I checked. Holy cow, the little turds had still gotten in and chewed up chunks of the rigid insulation I’d used in the roof. GRRRRRRR.
Well, I was definitely hauling it home to seal it up tighter!!!
Then I checked my little Golden Mean hive. It has a viewing window, so I opened it up, knowing they were doing well a few weeks ago. Well, son of a gun. A mouse nest was in there. Great.
I lifted the lid on my big hive. I couldn’t hear any hum!!!! It was cool, but ahhhhhhh! I just KNEW it was gonna be dead too. I cracked open the follower board and pulled out bars. After moving 5 or 6, I heard them… YAY! No sign of mice as far as I could see… and HUMMING! I closed it up tight.
I loaded my two other hives in my little truck, planning to work on them this winter. I opened the little one by my garage… what a mess! The mouse nest was HUGE.
It went through multiple combs. GROSS.
I cleaned it out and cracked apart more top bars. What? There it was… a small hum! With all this mess, I still had some bees alive! I looked through the viewing window and a mouse was looking out at me!!!! YUKYUKYUK! There’s some honey and some bees… I’m gonna give them a chance. I cleaned out the nest and set two traps inside.
I don’t want to open it up fully… temps weren’t quite warm enough… but if it warms up again, I’ll crack them all open and MAKE SURE there’s no mice in there. I may have to feed the bees through the winter, but I’ll try to keep them happy!
I HATE MICE.
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dryer sheet will keep mice out. Use Downy. Seems to work best. Mice do not like the smell. I have them in my ’67 pick-up so they won’t chew the wiring.
I am right there with you on mice in hives! Well, mice in general too ;-). Do you use entrance reducers out there?
Well, it’s reduced even more now…. 😉
Sounds like the kitty showed up just where he was needed!
Hey!!! You are certainly having a ‘fun’????? time with kitties and mice. Sorry about some of the bees but hope you get the mice/beehive moved to just a beehive. Love your blogs. Never boring. Always interesting. Often a smile on my face as I read them. Thanks Carol.