Feeding/attracting wildlife near hive

[Gilberdyke John]

We had Greater Spotted attacking a "tit" box last year, holes in the side etc.
The residents were bumbles that were a PitA just outside a shed door and when we opened the door we'd have 100's of bumbles being a pain, we lived with it but the woody cured the problem.

We still had bumbles on flowers up to a few days ago so the nest 'woody'd' hasn't cut the numbers, sit back and watch nature sort itself out.

We've been here 19 yr's. and for 17 yr's we saw NO hedgehogs, but we did have a badger sett on our ground. I MUST add that we kept 'free range layers' and at NO time did we have a conflict between brock and our birds, they were closed up for the night before brock came out, he/they just dug under our fences to let the fox in by day. This year we've had h'hogs "bl***y" everywhere,
6 bab's on the lawn at once one evening.

Our old labrador just loved to roll in fox ****.

 

[Millet]

My terriers and runners like rolling in green latrines , now that stinks i have seen them sprayed when in close pursuit of old raynard but that Latrine smell takes some beating for vileness , especially when the pooch slowly warms up and dries in front of the fire..

 

[Webby]

So do lots of other creatures, Jays, magpies, hedgehogs, woodpeckers, badgers, weasels, stoats, etc.
So do cats, but no one would be putting out food for them as in this thread.

I'm fully aware of predation thanks, but the op just mentioned feeding/ providing shelter for birds,bats, squirrels etc. I was merely commenting on squirrels. They don't need any help,far from it.

 

[Hivemaker.]

They don't need any help,far from it.

I agree, the whole lot of them need shooting, or trapping into oblivion, bloody red things even carry leprosy, worse than rats, kill them all.

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...evealed-in-red-squirrels-across-british-isles

 

[bpmurray]

Thanks to St Patrick, we don't have any snakes here in Ireland

And he had a go at the birds & the bees too!

 

[bpmurray]

So do lots of other creatures, Jays, magpies, hedgehogs, woodpeckers, badgers, weasels, stoats, etc.
So do cats, but no one would be putting out food for them as in this thread.

In Ireland jays, woodpeckers and weasels are so rare as to be irrelevant, and I haven't seen a stoat in years. However, we have an exploding population of pine martens and apparently they are partial to little feed of bees in honey.

 

[Hivemaker.]

In Ireland jays, woodpeckers and weasels are so rare as to be irrelevant, and I haven't seen a stoat in years.

Obviously the environment is too poor for these creatures to thrive in Ireland as well as they do here.

 

[Millet]

In Ireland jays, woodpeckers and weasels are so rare as to be irrelevant, and I haven't seen a stoat in years. However, we have an exploding population of pine martens and apparently they are partial to little feed of bees in honey.

Do you have moles.

 

[Farmer Tom]

Not a mole to be seen. Nor a toad IIRC.

Sadly, loads of North American Grey tree rats.

 

[Millet]

Not a mole to be seen. Nor a toad IIRC.

Sadly, loads of North American Grey tree rats.

It is weird that you do not have the animals over there that have been listed as you are not that far away, however i suppose it is not a bad thing having no moles, they cause a fare bit of damage over here, i bet you have a healthy population of worms though.. .

 

[Farmer Tom]

I think the ice sheet retreated too quickly for the slower critters to cross the UK mainland and get here before the Irish Sea formed.
Once moles etc. reached Kent or wherever they could take their time to spread within the big island.
Up in the North here we're still seeing the sea level drop as the land recovers now the weight of ice has gone

 

[Teemore]

The earthworm population is poor in grazed agricultural land but farmers growing cereals are increasingly conscious of soil structure and the benefits of earthworms in that regard.

AFAIK we don't have hornets in ireland: just Hornet Hoverflies and Wood Wasps which people frequently mistake for European Hornets or the Asian variety....

As noted, grey tree rats thrive as do the rabbits introduced by the Normans.

The past couple of years have seen a concerted effort by many farmers to chop back a lot of mature hedgerows, even those which do not border roadways, in the belief that this will prevent a reduction in their Single Farm Payment. There is little awareness that the assessed area is not dictated by the canopy of a hedge, rather the base of the hedge. This hedge hacking has decimated nectar and pollen sources in a lot of areas and may be an indicator of frightfully low honey yields in some areas. A lot of the mature hedges would have benefitted from being properly laid rather than being cut off at waist height.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The earthworm population is poor.

We noticed that years ago when over for the fishing in Co Mayo - they were astounded when we showed them buckets full of Terestris Lumricus the common earthworm or 'greys' as we call them here as opposed to the big red lobworms.

 

[MartinL]

According to the RSPB, the green woodpecker only eats ants.....so thats alright then (NOT!)
They will decimate a colony of bees and make a nasty mess of the hive too

Don't get me started with

the R.S.P.B.

 

[MartinL]

Greys are VERMIN

. . . . . I was merely commenting on squirrels. They don't need any help,far from it.

Unless the Squirrels are Red Squirrels I would be shooting them Not wasting food on them.

Spotted a couple squirrels lately. Didn't get a good look at them but think they were greys. Although I have spotted one or two reds in the past.

If you have both you'd do well to shoot as many Greys as you can!

 

[Farmer Tom]

The past couple of years have seen a concerted effort by many farmers to chop back a lot of mature hedgerows, even those which do not border roadways, in the belief that this will prevent a reduction in their Single Farm Payment. There is little awareness that the assessed area is not dictated by the canopy of a hedge, rather the base of the hedge.

Including tonight I noticed one of mine which I was about to harvest for firewood. Now sadly all chipped and dumped. GRRRRRR.

 

[Millet]

Greys are VERMIN










If you have both you'd do well to shoot as many Greys as you can!

I 100% agree with all of that Martin, Grey Squirrels are bad for many reasons, the main reason these days is they carry a pox type of disease that they are immune to, sadly our native Red Squirrels are not and it is killing them in large numbers, i was on a trapping program several years ago in Northumberland to try and knock the greys on the head, i do not do it now so i am not sure how successful it was, i have shot a good number of them over the years and i will continue to do so until i leave to go feed the worms.
If anyone is unsure of the difference as Grey Squirrels can also be Red, look fro the ear Tufts some of the younger ones do not have them, size is also another give away as Red Squirrels are noticeably smaller and less stocky, the tail on the Red Squirrel is slightly longer and more bushy compared to body size.
Here is a picture of a Red Squirrel i took on a friends window several years ago, if you have experience in killing Greys the difference is easy to spot.

 

[B+.]

Greys are VERMIN

If you have both you'd do well to shoot as many Greys as you can!

What about black squirrels? We have one of those runnig around the village.

 

[Webby]

Greys are VERMIN










If you have both you'd do well to shoot as many Greys as you can!

The only good grey is a dead grey. In the uk that is.

 

[Goran]

I have a lot of wildlife around.. I am not a hunter ( and don't intend to..). But the deer which jump over the fence and massacre our orchard I would choke with bare hands.. Plenty of food and trees for sharpening their antlers around, but they jump in and destroy some especially young fruit trees which I grafted.. Years of work, joy of watching them grow and nurturing goes in a vain. Such a devilish creature..