what causes the bees to chew holes in the side of the hive?
Are you talking about bees chewing holes in the wood?
Bees can't chew holes through wood. What do you have? Styrofoam?
I had that happen too, and thought the bees made the holes, now I know it was very small finch sized wood pecking type birds. I saw one tapping away. It appears that the wood the hives are made of though is too deep for the small birds beak to get through, only one hole out of 5 actually made it through the wood. My hives are wax dipped natural colored wood and am now painting them with my arts + crafts acrylics so they do not look so tempting to the woodpeckers.
Yes they can MB. I've seen it in hives my dad had in upstate NY. Generally occurred at the corners where the hive bodies or supers joined together.
I've seen them remove rotted wood when it's punky and soft. I've seen them chew up styrofoam when it was in the hive. I've seen the chew up newspaper, of course. but I've never seen them chew solid wood.
Yes my hives are wood.They are on hive stands about 20" off the ground.There is two of the hives that are doing it,both are three mediums high.It seems to me if there is a small crack between the supers they make the hole bigger.I doubt very seriously its birds because the cracks are covered with bees all day,and it is between the top and middle super, so not alot for birds to stand on.
yes, that's what I noticed with my dad's hives in upstate NY. They definitely chewed through firm solid wood. There generally was a sliver of daylight between hive bodies or supers. Most often they'd propolise the cracks, but sometimes bees would open it enough to make another entrance for themselves.
Quote from: Dick Allen on September 09, 2007, 02:20:45 AM
yes, that's what I noticed with my dad's hives in upstate NY. They definitely chewed through firm solid wood. There generally was a sliver of daylight between hive bodies or supers. Most often they'd propolise the cracks, but sometimes bees would open it enough to make another entrance for themselves.
:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
so...bees can't penetrate fruit, but they can chew wood :shock: :shock:
hell no way.
>so...bees can't penetrate fruit, but they can chew wood
My thinking exactly...
Is there a way we can post a picture of the bee damage or even maybe a video of the bee chewing the wood. I think this would be very interesting.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
dont know about solid wood but have seen them come through wall board and they chew paper so there must be some sort of gnawing :-\ why cant they gkawup fruit maybe they could if they realy wanted to i dont know just a gusse :? RDY-B
I don't know for certain--I've seen cases where it appears bees have enlarged a crack or opened up a knothole between 2 spaces. Usually on a wall stud and then enlarged the hive into the adjactent cavity. I would have to say they can take advantage of natural fault lines when they feel like it.
Honeybees chewing through wood? :? :? :? :? :? :? :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :roll:
I did a wall cutout this last Saturday. There was a 1/2" hardboard sheathing between the brick facia and the studs. The bees came through the bricks around a conduit. They had chewed the entire back surface of the hardboard sheathing. It had holes in it and it resembled swiss cheese. They filled the wall between the studs with comb and had started building comb in the 1" void between the sheathing and the bricks. There was about 2" of fine "hardboard dust" in the bottom of the wall. It was pretty amazing.
>so...bees can't penetrate fruit, but they can chew wood
hell no way.
OK, I've seen it happen more than once. If you choose to believe that I'm lying about that, well then I suppose there's not much I can do about it, is there?
they can chew through wood, now this wasn't new wood but it was a older hive body that had wax moth bamage and you know what I mean if you seen the cacoons in wood,, the bees worked on it about a year and the next season there was a whole, they did make a new entrance.....
I have had them chew through several sheets of newspaper. I don't see why they would not be able to chew through a fruit skin or some wood. I don't think they could do it quickly. However I they could probably do it.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
well most times you see bee's on figs the fruit has gotten rip enough that it bus open and has more juice, when it bust open they might smell it better!!
OK lets just agree to diagree and say,if you believe it or not,if they were to chew though wood,why do you think they would do this?
Quote from: newcomber on September 10, 2007, 09:27:26 PM
OK lets just agree to diagree and say,if you believe it or not,if they were to chew though wood,why do you think they would do this?
I think it is in the bee's cleaning of the hives, the wood could have soft, bad spots that they could chew through, I remover a hive last year that was between the 1st and 2nd floor, the bee's had about removed 1/4 of the sheet rock from the 1st floor ceiling, it was a spot about 2' x 4' , if he would have waited about another 3 months the bee's would be looking at him when he was eating dinner, I think its all in the cleaning and just a bad spot in the wood that they work on, now they not carpenter bee's and chewing through wood is rare but it does happen....
I don't know TWT,it's weird,the mediums are this years.I'll take pics and we'll see what you think. thanks
>OK, I've seen it happen more than once. If you choose to believe that I'm lying about that, well then I suppose there's not much I can do about it, is there?
Personally I'm not saying your lying, nothing you've ever said would lead me to expect anything from you but what you've actually seen, it just seems that if they can't penetrate fruit skin (which seems to be pretty well researched) they would have a lot of trouble with solid wood.
>I have had them chew through several sheets of newspaper. I don't see why they would not be able to chew through a fruit skin or some wood. I don't think they could do it quickly. However I they could probably do it.
But they can use saliva to soften the newspaper some what. And tearing a little piece at a time of newspaper is much easier than taking a solid piece of wood off. The wood has already been shredded once to make the newspaper.
That is true MB but wood is not solid like steel,its little strands one on top of the other.
Here are two photos showing where bees have been gnawing wood at a crack in a bottom board. While the bottom board wood is certainly not new, it is firm solid wood on each side of the cracked area. That particular hive was setting on a stand about 3 feet off the ground.
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i18/dronebee/various/100_0646.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i18/dronebee/various/100_0647.jpg
If you want to see bees gnaw wood try soaking a block of wood in honey or sugar syrup then place it in or near the hive. I used a paint stir stick to mix the syrup with and then absentmindedly left it out in the apiary-the next day bees were gnawing on it to beat the band.
Thats pretty cool about wood chewing bees, even if they did or didnt chew it.
But, I have a goofy story too!
My friends Paul and his wife heard a racket coming from somewhere in their kitchen. They thought their fridge, freezer or AC was going out. They looked and listened for a long time but couldnt really pin down what the noise was.Well, chech this out!....They finally found the source of the noise....It was a bee inside a beer can out in the garage!!...It was flapping around so loud that the noise was coming through the walls of the house!
Anyways, Paul let the bee out and he came back to my house!(Anytime I see a bee anymore I tell people they're going to my house).Oh....By the way...I think this bee was chewing through the can! (just kidding!)
your friend,
john