Jon's post on this other thread has got me thinking. I've never come across fox damage to hives myself and hadn't considered it as a possibility. Having seen badger damage in the past that was my initial conclusion. What ever the cause, I have no plans to voluntarily relinquish what's proving to be a superb apiary.
Last edited by prakel; 27-07-2014 at 11:20 AM.
It must be disappointing to have all your hard work undone Parkel and I don’t mean to poke fun but here are some tips for next year. I especially like the photo with the razor wire.
http://honeybadger.com/hive.html
Thanks, that actually looks like quite a good read which I'll look at properly this evening -some of the options may be easier and cheaper than digging in tele poles.Originally Posted by lindsay s
Did you lose much stuff?
I had some chewed by rats over winter but the Apideas are still usable albeit with a few teeth marks.
That's Andrews problem on Colonsay - they eradicated all their feral cats and ended up with a large population of rats. A lot of his apideas have corners removed plus large holes.
A handful of newly mated queens lost so far as well as several combs eaten from the frames but not too much heavy damage to the boxes themselves. A knock-on problem is that the exposed combs seem to have attracted every wasp in the County which are now badgering(!) the other colonies. Been relocating stuff today but still some on the site which we probably won't be able to move for a couple of days now...so more damage tonight I expect.
My beekeeping adventure has suffered far worse than this in the past, it's just so annoying having secured such a good site to now find that we're under attack from the local wildlife.
Our Lyson boxes had some very heavy rat damage in Dec 2012 but they're still going strong although we just noticed that a couple are now sporting some impressive claw slashes.
Sorry Parkel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcLlYpuaPLc
One new queen we saved (sneaking suspicion that some may have actually absconded, hard to tell with bees hanging around comb remnants which are strewn all over the place).
SAM_4176.jpgSAM_4189.jpgSAM_4198.jpg
Another option might be an electric fence of course - netting perhaps rather than wire ? (depending on the size of the site) - most animals are deterred once they've had a jolt or two.
LJ
I have been giving some thought to the possibility of electrics but think that the land manager may well have issues because of the way that they use the rest of the site. I need to look into the matter though.
I have been offered another site nearby as a replacement but it's nowhere near as sheltered from the elements or casual spectators and might be prone to the same problem anyway. Another possibility going through my mind is to put in some stands built from scaffolding which the hives can be strapped to -it seems to me that the culprit likes to drag the combs away from the main body of the colony to eat in relative comfort, so stopping them moving the hive may be sufficient. Is that just wishful thinking?
Oh, and thanks to Lindsay s for the youtube link!
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