I had to go and put the mouse guards on the hives yesterday. It's a little late really, you're supposed to do it before the first frost. They are literally guards against mice moving in to snuggle up with the bees for the winter. They don't bother the bees and rather surprisingly the bees don't bother them, but the mice nibble the stores and the wax so... Anyway there's a shed on the site and I'm fairly sure they'll find that and go and live in there.
The bees were pretty grumpy too and I got stung on the knee. We have to remove the entrance blocks first, which always annoys the bees. These are used late in the season to narrow the entrance of the hives so that the guard bees can defend the colony from robbing by neighbouring colonies and wasps. But in the winter they need ventilation so they are removed and the mouse guards are put in their place. Apparently a mouse can squeeze in to a hole that is just over 1 cm wide!!! There heads are wider than they are tall and they can sort of flatten themselves to squeeze into the gap. Anyway...better get on - my list beckons.
Nature was looking a bit defeated by the frost.
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I remember being told on the Introduction to Bee-keeping course about mice and their ability to squeeze through narrow gaps. I wasn't entirely sure I believed it, but I guess it must be true. You'd think the bees would see the mice off.
I know, but they just seem to tollerate them and by that stage, the colony is quite small, maybe 15,000 and falling, so they have less 'muscle' to see them off.
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