Badger protection

[Headnavigator]

I know we have badgers in the garden, though they normally cause no trouble. However for the past few days I have found a few deep scratches on the side of a cedar hive and I'm concerned. Apart from fencing round it, is there anything else I could do? Good old chicken-wire that I was going to employ against our now resident green woodie isn't going to hold back a badger. Any thoughts or lessons from previous experience, please?

 

[user 6228]

raise the hive up on a stand that doesnt make it easy for them.

 

[herefordshirehoney]

Does that work as the badgers i've seen round here are massive!

 

[susbees]

The chicken house we had torn into by badgers, right beside our kitchen, was on legs around the same height as a standard hive stand. Made no difference, but, at the time there was a nest box on the side as a half way step to the roof. From there the creature tore through the wood and fairly heavy wire mesh on the front and got in, decapitated ten bantams. Drought, but obviously not hungry . DEFRA took photos for their records.

They can move 10kg with their bulk and their claws are pretty powerful. The only thing we've ever used that works is electric fencing on pig posts or similar. Running off a leisure battery they work as long as you don't let them short out or the battery go flat (obviously...).

It IS legal to block badger feeding runs into your apiary/farm/whatever. They are supposed to be spooked by big plastic bottles filled with water. This year we have badgers digging for food in the apiary and hoping for rain so they don't get desperate. One of the collies had her ear nipped by one on a walk last week along the lane. Hmm

 

[montybees]

Make sure the hive is extremely well strapped together (and to the stand). A determined badger will get through almost anything but if it is just being inquisitive then you don't want it to realise that it just has to push the hive over to get at the goodies.

Also echo what susbees says about electric fencing.

Cheers
Monty

 

[rae]

A few years ago, a hungry badger smashed though a uPVC door at my mums place. Ripped the catflap out, then ripped a big enough hole to get in. Mother was terrified, called plod, who could hear the carnage over the phone, so sent the armed response unit... Badgers will get into anything they want to. They're a bit like mini-bears in that respect.

We also have badgers, and thankfully they've never bothered the hives. An electric fence (probably double one) would be the only defence I think would work.

 

[montybees]

Badgers will get into anything they want to. They're a bit like mini-bears in that respect.

They are also very good at digging up wasps nests

 

[beeatshellards]

would they also dig up bees nesting in the ground? over the last few days we have had a badger dig looads of holes in the garden , disrupting rocks etc maybe this explains it

 

[user 6228]

Does that work as the badgers i've seen round here are massive!

you need to build in an overhang so they cant push up on the legs of the stand

 

[Hebeegeebee]

http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/

(Don't worry Admin, these badgers don't sell anything)!

 

[Luminos]

One of the collies had her ear nipped by one on a walk last week along the lane. Hmm

...so, she has a collieflower ear, now?

 

[Luminos]

It's possible to have a solar-powered battery for electric fencing - we have one for our horses - thus pretty much eliminating the constant need to recharge it

 

[susbees]

One of the collies had her ear nipped by one on a walk last week along the lane. Hmm

...so, she has a collieflower ear, now?

Ha ha....nope, a bleughhy abscess cured by the power of tea tree and lavender oil and her son's saliva. All better now. Last time one of the dogs was attacked it was on the doorstep when the outside bulb failed. Got his lip. Not keen on badgers, me...

 

[For want of a better word]

Plant Badgerbain in and around the apiary...... think it is also called horse raddish, tho I have never seen it keep horses at bay?

Learned about this when I lived in Sussex / Surrey boarders... BIG badger country!

{ They also had otters that got exterminated.... any thing else them hunters could not eat like foxes... bears etc etc!)

 

[Headnavigator]

Now I'm really scared! (and singing badgerbadgerbadger thankyou).
I've got good stands, strapped now to secure further, and will look into a leccy fence. We do have horseradish growing in a bed about six foot away so it's only a matter of time before it spreads into the apiary.
Many thanks for your suggestions - just glad we haven't got a cat-flap!

 

[rog]

Try rags soaked with creosote or diesel on the routes they use into your garden. They dislike the smell.
Other than that you could do what Yeo Valley Farms did to protect their cattle from Tb and fence the whole place with badger fencing dug into the ground but it will cost you a few jars of honey.

Ps if you can change their foraging habits by spoiling their access routes they may leave you alone for a while.

 

[Phil280]

Hi there.

Last year a friend had a badger visit two of his hives in winter. He had OMFs and the badger ripped the mesh from below and some of the frames out. He tried to pull them through the opening.

Since then I have placed my hives on chicken mesh.

Greets
Phil

 

[Chris B]

I've had clawmarks on hives but never worse than that. I guess some badgers just haven't learned about the goodies inside bee hives.