mouse guards

[Arfermo]

Scrounged some strips pf 6mm perspex today (and found a source of more corex for making inspection boards and dummy frames etc.) and i plan to drill a series of 8mm holes in these to create mouse guards. Still unsure as to whether i will actually fit them. Living in the country we tend to "feed" rats and mice a special diet throughout the year so maybe they will not bother my hives.... I just don't want to discover in the Spring that I should have fitted MGs.

Wally Shaw "recommended" 8 or 9mm mouseguard holes. I've given up on the zinc slotted type as the holes are larger than necessary and now close up the normal entrance block and instead put on shallow homemade ekes with a slot circa 90 mm long by 6 mm high which were initially intended for Baily comb changing but now have a dual purpose. 6mm high is quite enough for the bees but I doubt a mouse can wriggle through, assuming they would bother anyway - but someone will disagree no doubt!!

 

[Poly Hive]

Not sure what you mean by the zinc slotted type as mine have holes in them at roughly 8mm. Never had a mouse get through one yet though the classic acid test was if the hole was the diameter of a fountain pen then a mouse could get in.

However... that supposed that the hole was in fact a slot as the skull can get through 8mm, but if it is a round hole the ribs cannot, or so we were taught at agri college some decades ago and I don't suppose mice have evolved that fast in the mean time...lol

PH

 

[Storm™]

Speaking to my friend who keeps bees about this and he says "Mice will strike and there are always a lot of them. A Hole is better than a slot because they can flatten their bodies. But they cannot flatten their heads. And they will turn their heads up to 45 degrees and wiggle through to get in somewhere"

Critical measurement of mouse head is apparently the key issue then for those with slots.

Anyone know what that is?

 

[Arfermo]

Not sure what you mean by the zinc slotted type as mine have holes in them at roughly 8mm. Never had a mouse get through one yet though the classic acid test was if the hole was the diameter of a fountain pen then a mouse could get in.

However... that supposed that the hole was in fact a slot as the skull can get through 8mm, but if it is a round hole the ribs cannot, or so we were taught at agri college some decades ago and I don't suppose mice have evolved that fast in the mean time...lol

PH

Yes - I meant the round holed variety. 8mm holes larger than necessary as I have proved, and am proving at the moment, to my and my bees satisfaction. QED.

 

[newportbuzz]

well the mesh ones i i have put on seem to be doing the job as the bees seem to easily be able to gain exit and entrance and i dont see pollen dropped at the enterance and they are still bringing in small amounts of ivy pollen. so heres hoping it stops the mice aswell.