Heads and tails on the inspection boards

[Amari]

Yesterday I did varroa counts on nine hives (all open mesh floors) a week after vaping. Most boards had a dozen or more bees' heads quite separate from a similar number of abdomens. Legs aplenty.
These body parts are too big to have fallen through the holes in the OMF so how did they get there and what dismembered the corpses?

 

[Curly green finger's]

I would have a guess that a mouse or shrew has got inbetween board and floor and had a munch , I've one hive like this now .

 

[Delgirl]

Yep. I had a small pile of empty thoraxes on inspection board this week and a number of small droppings. Suspect a shrew has been celebrating the season of goodwill as not sure a mouse would get through swienty poly entrance. Vaped anyway (sorry shrew if you got a dose) but no sign since which I suspect due to bees being pretty active at the moment and probably chased off or despatched. Ordered some 1/4 inch mesh to cover entrance until spring to keep the little sods out if bees go back into cluster. Apparently they pick the bees off from cluster and can decimate a hive over winter.

 

[Poly Hive]

Swienty entrances are 8mm and in my reasonably long experience are mouse proof.
Other makes may not be.

PH

 

[Erichalfbee]

Bees out at this time of year sometimes end up on the inspection board where they get eaten. Shrews won’t be in the hive.
When I lived in Cumbria we used to get cluster flies in the loft. Come spring the floor would be littered with wings.

 

[Millet]

Bees out at this time of year sometimes end up on the inspection board where they get eaten. Shrews won’t be in the hive.
When I lived in Cumbria we used to get cluster flies in the loft. Come spring the floor would be littered with wings.

Spiders like flies..

 

[Delgirl]

Yes the debris size would not have got through OMF so looks like the gap was the dining room, Got part of my research from this post although appreciate not UK. https://www.honeybeesuite.com/blaming-shrew/. Mea culpa to some degree I think. I had the bright idea of using Silicone mats designed for dehydrators as a form of bee landing area pinned to front of hives (it works). Should have removed them as I think shrew used them to climb in even though not fully on the outside floor. Obviously now removed but the good news is that I understand they don’t tend to nest inside as mice do and after two days of checking before vaping, no further signs. Much as I was not happy about my bees being eaten I was not happy about vaping a furry either.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Spiders like flies..

I reckon it was mice.

 

[enrico]

I have thousands of tiny little black bits on my inspection board, in one hive only, which I am sure are woodlice. I would imagine they are in the floor are of the hive, probably in the runners for the inspection board but I cant dislodge them. When I vaped last month they all came scurrying out but they seem to be back in there again now. I presume they don't eat anything but rotting wood but there is a distinct shortage of debris on the floor other than their poo so who knows? There are still bees in there. Trusting they will be OK cohabiting!!
Happy new year by the way!
E

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Spiders like flies..

I reckon it was mice.

Don't reckon a spider could eat a whole mouse

 

[Millet]

Don't reckon a spider could eat a whole mouse

Now are you sure..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSLIlPYIA5Y

 

[masterBK]

Shrews won’t be in the hive

Really?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Shrews won’t be in the hive

Really?

Well I’ve never seen any in mine.
Looks like a dead one though so harmless

 

[masterBK]

Shrews have a very high metabolic rate and need to eat at regualar intervals and don't hibernate. They often enter beehives to feed at night during winter (and can easily squeeze through a mouseguard) and usually they exit without problems as the bees are in cluster during cold nights but sometimes they get caught out and are stung to death. My second photo is of a shrew found dead in the bee space between two brood chambers

 

[Buzzlodge]

Here's a photo of something similar from one of my hives about a month ago. There were two clusters of bee parts on the bottom board that definitely couldnt have come through the mesh.
Shrews or mice maybe?

 

[viridens]

I have thousands of tiny little black bits on my inspection board, in one hive only, which I am sure are woodlice. I would imagine they are in the floor are of the hive, probably in the runners for the inspection board but I cant dislodge them. When I vaped last month they all came scurrying out but they seem to be back in there again now. I presume they don't eat anything but rotting wood but there is a distinct shortage of debris on the floor other than their poo so who knows? There are still bees in there. Trusting they will be OK cohabiting!!
Happy new year by the way!
E

I see that these little crustaceans are described as "'predominantly vegetarian', but they certainly gather on swept up dead bees which I throw on the flower border as mulch. But I suppose they could be eating fungi or whatever growing on them rather than the bodies themselves.

 

[masterBK]

Woodlice will even eat their own faeces (coprophagy).

 

[Erichalfbee]

Woodlice will even eat their own faeces (coprophagy).

Like rabbits, then.