Hole in poly nuc roof

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Repwoc

Drone Bee
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Joined
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Location
Newport, South Wales
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
>6
On Sunday I noticed a small hole in the roof of one of my nucs. The hole doesn't go all the way through the poly, but it's not far off. Diameter is only ~5 mm. (The stippled circle next to it is ~7 mm diameter.) Could this have been done by a bird?

IMG_20210117_125156496[1].jpg IMG_20210117_125212939[1].jpg
 
While green woodpeckers will drill a hole through the side or roof of a poly beehive to get at the insides they usually leave other clues like claw marks as they need to grip the surface to do it . There doesn't appear to be any such marks in this case. In many ways it looks like the holes bored by greater wax moth larvae prior to pupation. But they only tend to do this in equipment stored in a dark environment.
 
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While green woodpeckers will drill a hole through the side or roof of a poly beehive to get at the insides they usually leave other clues like claw marks as they need to grip the surface to do it . There doesn't appear to be any such marks in this case. In many ways it looks like the holes bored by greater wax moth larvae prior to pupation. But they only tend to do this in equipment stored in a dark environment.
Agree about the claw marks but as it’s the roof woody probably didn’t need to hang on!!. Fill it with expanding glue and a few layers of thick paint. Ian
 
It doesn't look like waxmoth damage to me ... if you look closely at the group of holes the edges of the smaller ones appear to have been pushed in as the paint is still in place, classic woodpecker hole in poly .. their beaks are like small hammers.

Waxmoth damage is usually round. clean holes in poly that are made oval as the grubs eat their way through it laterally. Plus .. I would expect wax moth damage to start from the underside of the roof ... I've had a poly nuc and a poly super totally destoyed by greater wax moth so I've seen it.

It looks more to me like woodpecker damage as the hammering will have created the sort of damage you can see around the edges. As it was a flat roof they would not have to grip ... the bird could just stand there and peck away. They seem to have a knack for finding weak spots and it is possible that they could sense there was a void in the polystyrene which they have attacked.

I'd fill the holes with car body filler if the hive is occupied - pretty sharpish if I was you because if it is a woodpecker ... it will be back.
 
It could be a great tit or blue tit, I've had the same problem with poly hives and nucs. I've got great spotted and green woodpeckers in the garden but I think they wouldn't make such a small hole, they would be all the way through in a few minutes.

I wrap all my wooden hives in black plastic sheet over winter (1000 gauge damp proof membrane) and put chicken wire cages over poly hives.

I repair woodpecker and wax moth holes in poly hives with Ronseal multi-purpose wood filler. This doesn't contain nasty solvents like car body filler.
 
Thanks all. It looks like I'm going to be busy making a lot of chicken wire cages ...
 
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