Shrew?

[ugcheleuce]

Hello everyone

Two of my six hives have bottom boards that look similar to this:

A fellow beekeeper tells me that all those fragments of dead bees towards the rear and the "chewed up" comb near the edges is a tell-tale sign of a shrew in the hive. I lifted the hive today but saw neither mouse nor shrew.

Do you also think that this bottom board says "shrew"?

Thanks
Samuel

 

[MikeT]

Have you mouse guards on the hives?

The wax particles on the inspection board look like those on my hives, but the lines are more defined on my hives.

The black particles do look like bee parts. Can you pick out legs and heads to confirm.

I am wondering if these are dead bees, the wind may have blown them to the back of the hive and smashed them against the walls. I have noticed this with our Dyson vacuum cleaner when cleaning up dead flies, they are smashed to pieces by the air vortex.

Other more experienced beeks will have their opinions I am sure.

 

[ugcheleuce]

Have you mouse guards on the hives?

No, I must admit that it didn't occur to me that have mouse guards. The hives are on a hive stand 50 cm off the gound, so I'm surprised that a shrew would be able to climp up the hive stand legs. The flight opening is reduced, but not *that* reduced.

The black particles do look like bee parts. Can you pick out legs and heads to confirm.

Oh, they're definitely bee parts. I did find it odd that the bee parts were a mass of separate body parts and not whole bees, as I had previously found when bees die and are not carried out of the hive.

I am wondering if these are dead bees, the wind may have blown them to the back of the hive and smashed them against the walls.

Maybe...

 

[MikeT]

5 The hives are on a hive stand 50 cm off the gound, so I'm surprised that a shrew would be able to climp up the hive stand legs.

I doubt if shrews would climb, they are animals which live in undergrowth and long grass and try to keep out of site of owls etc therefore more likely to be mice.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Fit some mouse guards.

 

[hedgehog66]

http://www.nbba.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/shrew_screen.pdf

Pygmy shrew for sure
Yes they can climb, unfortunately.......

 

[Finman]

.
A mouse tends to eate pollen from combs and then there are lots of wax pieces on floor.
But a little creature visits in the hive because it has eaten bee bodies. There are not whole bee bodies on floor.

 

[MikeT]

You learn something every day on this site.

Thanks for that our cat brings these in most weeks, so I will now be on my guard.

Mike

 

[ugcheleuce]

Fit some mouse guards.

Yes, tomorrow I'm off to the bee shop to buy the entrance reducers that one can buy with the bottom boards that I have on these hives (Nicot system). This is what comes from pinching pennies.

 

[yeogi75]

if its mice that plastic will not last very long, I had the same problem and put some round disc entrance reducers on , they chewed thru plastic as it was butter, then put something more substantial on then they chewed thru the woodwork, once mice have entered anywhere they are hard to keep out especially when you shut them up for winter and they start nest building.

 

[BeeJayBee]

http://www.nbba.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/shrew_screen.pdf

Pygmy shrew for sure
Yes they can climb, unfortunately.......

... and can get through the 10mm holes in a Thornes mouseguard although, presumably, if they get particularly fat they will not get back out, which may be why I found shrew bones in a couple of my hives last Spring.

 

[Bosleeu]

The bee parts do look chewed up to me. I have zoomed in but unable to confirm if some of the black bits are droppings on the photo. Mouse guards are a good idea.

 

[jonnybeegood]

Maybe the bits of bee were just dead bees on the floor that were chewed up?

 

[ugcheleuce]

The bee parts do look chewed up to me. I have zoomed in but unable to confirm if some of the black bits are droppings on the photo.

If you're curious about the board, here are four photos with better resolution (the photo I posted earlier was deliberately reduced for the forum). Now that I know what to look out for (heads, torsos and rear ends separated from each other, or torsos chewed open from the top), I'm pretty sure this is a shrew.

http://wikisend.com/download/596896/fourcorners.zip (5 MB)

Maybe the bits of bee were just dead bees on the floor that were chewed up?

Chewed up by whom? Bees don't disassembled their dead... or do they?

 

[jonnybeegood]

If you're curious about the board, here are four photos with better resolution (the photo I posted earlier was deliberately reduced for the forum). Now that I know what to look out for (heads, torsos and rear ends separated from each other, or torsos chewed open from the top), I'm pretty sure this is a shrew.

http://wikisend.com/download/596896/fourcorners.zip (5 MB)



Chewed up by whom? Bees don't disassembled their dead... or do they?

I was just thinking, after looking at one of the links posted, it said that pygmy shrews will pluck off bees from the outside of the cluster, but I was thinking maybe it was dead bees off the floor it was eating & you may not have lost any live bees to it.

 

[Finman]

r, but I was thinking maybe it was dead bees off the floor it was eating & you may not have lost any live bees to it.

It eates muscles of dead bees and it picks living bees from cluster too.
Who knows, how many visit in the hive when door is open. It is not a friend of bees, it is sure.

The creature stinks and it disturbs the wintering cluster.

 

[hedgehog66]

I have a mentor who lost 3 hives in an out apiary to pygmy shrew
Her description of the carnage is exactly the same as described by the op
When she asked the farrmer if pygmy shrew were on the farm he confirmed that they had been present for a large number of years

 

[ugcheleuce]

...I'm pretty sure this is a shrew.

Unfortunately shrews are protected animals hereabouts, so I can't kill it. I just have to chase it away and then prevent it from entering the hive again.

 

[pargyle]

Unfortunately shrews are protected animals hereabouts, so I can't kill it. I just have to chase it away and then prevent it from entering the hive again.

They are protected in the UK as well .... under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act - Killing one could attract a fine of £5K and/or up to 6 months imprisonment .... if you get caught of course !

 

[charlievictorbravo]

They are protected in the UK as well .... under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act - Killing one could attract a fine of £5K and/or up to 6 months imprisonment .... if you get caught of course !

Philosophical question - what can you do if you find a protected animal eating a protected plant?

CVB