Mouseguards

[The Drone Ranger]

Hey ho !
time to put the mouse guards back on ?
Usual mixture of panel pins driven into the existing entrance as recommended by Ron Brown
and perforated steel as recommended by nobody (don't like much but they work)
amI too early this year 73% humidity 15.3C as I type this

[fatshark]

Try not to use them at all ... I use those Dartington-style underfloor entrances on most hives. The right angled 8mm 'slot' is impassable by mice and easily defended against wasps. 15-16C here as well and they're packing the pollen in ... a fantastic site, with ~50% of returning foragers heavily laden with bright yellow saddlebags.

[Jon]

Too early DR. My bees are still bringing in masses of pollen and the mouse guards knock it off.
I wait till the first cold spell if I bother at all.
The mice are easy to deal with. If you get a rat starting to chew its way in that's a bigger problem.
The rats had a go at a couple of apideas last winter and I had the entrances widened on a couple of my correx boxes.

[Trog]

I wait until the first frosts; bees are very active just now and there's lots of ivy and fuchsia for them. It would be a very brave mouse that went anywhere near the girls just now! It'll be interesting to see how the polynucs fare, though, as it's our first winter with them and our mice have very strong gnashers!

[The Drone Ranger]

I was surprised how warm it was today
some folks say only put mouse guards on when you don't have to avoid guard bees
There might be better entrances than I use like fatshark describes I haven't seen those

[fatshark]

Hi DR ... Graham White of Edinburgh Beekeepers has published details of these types of floor. See also this page of a commercial one by Alan Wadsworth. I see that these cost £32 ... I reckon mine cost about £3-4 plus a sheet of wire mesh (and I'm hoping to stock up on the latter from the cheapo offerings at the NHS).

I make mine slightly differently and have just written a brief article for our BKA on them. Once they've knocked together a PDF I'll be happy to send you the link. Better still ... here's a picture of one I built this w/e for a nuc. There is an entrance block in place (the unstained wood) ... Jon would be proud, the landing board is Correx

Figure 4.jpg

The only problem I've ever had was when an overwintering double brood managed to pack the entrance slot with corpses during a prolonged period of very hard weather. I now nip round once a month or so with a specially constructed high-tech tool to clear the slot (a bent coathanger).

[The Drone Ranger]

Thanks Fatshark they look good
I hadn't seen them before - smart idea