Badger threat

[rockdoc]

No, nothing to do with the cull, just discovered a 'pile' very near to one of my hives. Thanet is not known for its badger populations, but this poo looks like that's who it belongs to, dark and full of seeds etc. Any advice on what they might do, if anything, to the hives aside from knocking them over?

 

[PBee]

I keep hives in areas with lots of Badger activity and have never had them show any interest. I have a couple of infra red wildlife cameras that I set up at apiaries sometimes - good for two legged beasties aswell.

 

[madasafish]

I keep hives in areas with lots of Badger activity and have never had them show any interest. .

 

[Luminos]

No problems here from any of the the wildlife

 

[oliver90owner]

My answer is not a lot, unless the hive is already old or weak.

It could depend on how hungry they might get.

My answer does indicate they might eat the contents, however.

 

[rockdoc]

Thanks all and good to know they appear to show little interest. I might set up a little camera as they are very rare here.
Thanks

 

[oliver90owner]

Thanks all and good to know they appear to show little interest.

Yeah? Try this thread searched from the archives. You are OK until .....

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=13357&highlight=badger+poly

 

[For want of a better word]

Strap hive to a concrete block to hold it down and prevent knocking off brood / supers etc

...... and a friend of a friend said that human urine splashed liberally over and around the hive / apiary dissuades badgers et al !

Must admit have not tried it!

 

[Silly Bee]

A badger dug out a wasp nest in my garden a couple of years ago.

 

[Headnavigator]

I keep hives in areas with lots of Badger activity and have never had them show any interest. I have a couple of infra red wildlife cameras that I set up at apiaries sometimes - good for two legged beasties aswell.

However - one brood box has a couple of claw marks down one side - and I do keep my hives strapped up a lot of the time. A beekeeper a few miles from me had her complete apiary (five or six hives) totally destroyed by badgers so I am very cautious. I have never seen a badger in the garden but my night cam has plenty of footage of badgers young and old bumbling around at night (as well as foxes and a heifer on one occasion!)

 

[cjhart2]

Have a satellite sett about 25 m from the hive , no problem at all .

 

[enrico]

Once they find what is in one hive they will have a go at the others. The initial find maybe an accident, knocking it over for example, but once in.........
I would build some pretty fencing round it with wire buried about a foot, they will dig under otherwise. Dug under a slab to get into my veg patch and cleared my carrots one night! Strengthen the wire with nice wood edges, half rounds look good and are strong.
E

 

[domino]

Once they find what is in one hive they will have a go at the others.

Confirming they learn new stuff.

 

[Goodwood]

One tried to get into a new ****** poly in the spring.
Deep claw marks gouged quite a depression outnof the front.
Raising the hives up 18 inches more from the foot high tree stump it was on seems tomhave done the trick.

 

[TOBY-3652]

never had a problem with them at the hives.. i have found wasps nests and bumble bees dug out quite regular but touch wood nobody i know has ever had any hives attacked with badgers

 

[thepliedes]

Culling in nature does not work to control or curb a species. These has been proved over and over again. As human beings the knee jerk reaction to a problem is to cull. All we do is interfere with the food webs in nature and remove a predator so that further along the line we have an increase in another species, then we decide to cull that and then we find an increase in another species and....so it goes on. The answer is to protect a species, not kill another i.e. the predatory species. It seems counter-intuitive but that's what happens as the maths and computer modelling of population dynamics show. Instead of killing badgers - protect your hives.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Culling in nature does not work to control or curb a species.

Worked well with the passenger pigeons,they are extinct.

 

[thepliedes]

The point is we shouldn't WANT to make a species extinct - that's why there are endangered species around the world and why conservation exists.

 

[Hivemaker.]

And the Dodo.

 

[thepliedes]

I think you have missed my point. When we interfere by removing a species we have removed a predator to some species from the food web which can cause an increase of another which we will eventually have to cull.....nature can provide it's own culling which is far more effective and balances itself out.