I had the worst day today. Went up to the hives to find one of my hives pushed over and supers, frames all over. The other 2 hives untouched. First thought was a bear. But when I inspected it, I found only the honey had been eaten and all brood was left.
Also a friend told me that last night he saw a very large raccoon walking around down the road from my bees. He didn't think anything of it, because we have many raccoons around here.
I sat and cried and cried, then I called my beekeeper friend Shawna and she came right over and helped me to put the hive back together. Well a miracle!! We were able to save the entire hive, the queen was ok. We saw them fanning over one super to call the other bees home, all brood frames were intact and no dead bees on the ground.
I spend the entire morning going to Home Depot and purchasing the heaviest concrete bricks. I can't even lift them, they are so heavy. I had a friend come with me who placed them onto my hives for me, we also placed many heavy bricks all over the place. Onto the hive stands, etc. He said there is no way a raccoon could possibly push this hive now.
I also looked into a solar electric fence at Home Depot and the cost of this. This is a possibility also.
Also the doggie that lives there where I keep my bees was tied up last night. Usually he runs free. I will make sure he isn't tied up again.
Exhausting day for me, mentally that is!!
that sucks. glad you got them back together. for some reason they have not struck my place yet, but i'm sure they will.
how are you going to check your hives with those bricks on there? :-D
I was thinking the same thing. Annette - if you can't lift the concrete blocks, how will you get them on and off the tops of your hives to inspect them? Or is this just temporary until you can install other measures?
I know the last hurricane we had blow through here - Cat 3 - Ike - I just piled as many rocks as I could find around my pond on my one hive (only had one that year) and it survived intact. It must have been a big raccoon to topple a hive....... they are very smart - that I know.
Annette
Sorry to hear about your miss fortune. I have a bit of a doubt about the culprit being a raccoon instead of a bear but you are probably right and for your sake I hope you are right.
Anyway I just want to make a suggestion if you dont go the fence route which I think you should. If you cant lift the bricks how will you care for your bees? You will be dependent on someone to help you. I have had a couple storms roll through my area with 60 plus mile an hour winds and take the covers off my colonies even though they had fifteen or twenty pound rocks on them. I have thought in the past that I should put some trailer house spikes made for strapping trailer houses down so they dont get blown away or blown over in a storm. in ground one each side of colonies then strap the the hive down. A bear would even have some fun getting the colonies apart. For me this would cost way to much cause I have 22 colonies now and my plan is many more next year so not a feasible idea for me. But this might be a good idea for you or others who have a few permanent hives. A coon surely would be out of luck and you would be protected from wind and not have to break your back lifting huge bricks.
A few links to look at below. There also has to be other ways to strap colonies down. Someone just has to think about it and innovate.
http://www.mygreathome.com/fix-it_guide/tiedowns.htm (http://www.mygreathome.com/fix-it_guide/tiedowns.htm)
http://www.tiedown.com/pdf/d12.pdf (http://www.tiedown.com/pdf/d12.pdf)
http://www.nachi.org/manufactured-home-tie-downs.htm (http://www.nachi.org/manufactured-home-tie-downs.htm)
http://www.flhsmv.gov/html/reports_and_statistics/mhd_reports/Benefits%20of%20Proper%20Installation.pdf (http://www.flhsmv.gov/html/reports_and_statistics/mhd_reports/Benefits%20of%20Proper%20Installation.pdf)
And to clarify Im only talking about using the spikes in ground and then using regular ratchet straps to hole colonies down. You could probably get away with those things that screw into the ground that act as a portable dog anchor or whatever they are called. Im sure someone knows what im talking about and can give a better discription. All in all I think you should go with the solar fence, fiber glass fence posts, and three poly tape strands. Then you can keep out skunks, coons, bears, and maybe even cityiot kids if you put up a sign that says high voltage electric fence.
quote author=Robo link=action=profile;u=55 date=1269956762]
Jim,
I have tried a few over the years and Parmak http://www.parmak.com/ (http://www.parmak.com/) is my brand of choice. They are very reliable and they have great support. I have one that has been running 3 years non-stop. I watch eBay and buy used ones and then ship then to Parmak for repair, It can be a lot cheaper that buying a new one. Occasionally (once a month or so) there is a guy in Texas that puts up a new one for $125 on eBay. I've bought one from him for a client and it was perfectly fine.
As far as fence, if it is a permanent yard, I drive T post in the ground and run 3 strands of wire. For temp yards I use the push in plastic posts with 2 or 3 runs of the string line. They key is to bait the wire by hanging strips of #8 hardware cloth with peanut butter on the wire. Without bait, they will just plow through the fence and be insulated by their fur. With the bait, they get nailed on the nose or tongue and never come back. I've had 4 bear in my yard at one time, and the only hive they got was a nuc I had in my garden that was only protected by 8ft high fencing. They ripped right through the fence. I had a trailer with 8 full hives about 10 ft away protected by the temporary electric fence and they never touched them. They also tore the door off my chicken coop to get at the feed, and were back every night, until I put a single baited strand of electric wire around the chicken coop, never had a problem since.
I also use the non-solar parmak's and power them with a standard 12V wall wart with no problem. For the 6v ones I just use a couple dollar voltage regulator. I also have converted a non-solar unit to solar by putting a $20 car solar panel on top and using a 12V car battery.
I have never had a lightning issue with the parmak's like I did with most other brands. I also had bad luck with the Zareba solar units, if they weren't in direct sunlight for 8 hours a day, they would not get enough charge to continue working. I have had the parmak's go weeks with the solar panel covered with snow and still work.
There are some other high end units out there like gallagher that I have no experience with.
[/quote]
Annette...........
If you are going solar buy a Parmak
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
That stinks. That's a nightmare of mine to have something like that happen. Just be thankful it wasn't in the middle of the winter. At least happening now, they can still recover.
Annette,
Could it possibly be something else other than raccoons? Maybe the hive was knocked over and a raccoon was opportunistic and fed on the honey after the fact.
The reason I say this is that I have a family of raccoons raised in my garage every year. This year, the litter was 5. They pass my home nuc yard every night going to the pond where they drink and hunt frogs and fish. This pond is literally 10 feet from my bee yard. They have a path going straight through the yard. I have 75 nucs in this yard with foam and wooden tops with nothing more than a brick on top. I have never had one nuc in 10 years knocked over.
Come to think about it, I have never had a hive in any of my yards ever impacted by raccoons.
I guess everything is possible. I just think maybe considering something else may be worth a second or two.
You don't live near CaHighwind do ya? :roll:
So sorry to hear about the devastation to your hive, I can only imagine. There are so many raccoons in my area, that the neighbors and I have started "thinning the herd". I just started keeping bees this yr and have worried about the raccoons from day one, they have no problem getting into garbage cans, even bungi strapped down. I wondered about using the trailer tie-downs. I work in that industry and I would go with what we call cross drive anchors. Two 32" rods driven in ground with a sledge and has a head on it that you would attach ratcheting straps. One anchor on each side of hive. Cost would be around $7.00/anchor. Problem solved even it it was a bear. Any mobile home parts place would have them, fairly easy to install.
I agree with Bjorn, with just a degree of reserve. I've never seen any problem with raccoons. BUT, I have seen Calif. coons 4 times the size of any on the east coast. That may be the difference.
parmak is good. that's what i use here for horse fencing.
i have ground rods driven to China and the charge stays good with no lightning problems.
use a tie down system, i didnt read all the posts so I am sure someone would have suggested it.
Quote from: BjornBee on August 07, 2010, 08:01:07 AM
Annette,
Could it possibly be something else other than raccoons? Maybe the hive was knocked over and a raccoon was opportunistic and fed on the honey after the fact.
Quote from: annette on August 07, 2010, 12:45:16 AM
I spend the entire morning going to Home Depot and purchasing the heaviest concrete bricks. I can't even lift them, they are so heavy.
Also the doggier that lives there where I keep my bees was tied up last night. Usually he runs free. I will make sure he isn't tied up again.
If the hive go over again you got BEAR OR KIDS
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
I doubt if it was a coon. You would have to have an extremely light hive for a coon to be able to push it over. Not saying that a coon would not take an opportunity to clean up a mess left by something else. Do you have bear, cows or horses in the area? Cows and horses will graze around the hives, until they get stung, and then can whirl around, kick, and take up, and knock over the hive in the process. Get some hive staples and staple your bottom board and brood box, together, at least. My hives survived Hurricane Ike and Humberto, with nothing special on them.
I feel for you...I had the same thing happen last night. The only good news is that there wasn't much damage so I think they were able to chase their attacker away and the solar electric fence that I'd been wanted to purchase, moved up on the priority list. It is not installed and charging. Sigh. This is my first year and I just keep feeling like I'm doing everything wrong. I hope to bee a better keeper next year.
Quote from: iddee on August 07, 2010, 11:07:28 AM
I agree with Bjorn, with just a degree of reserve. I've never seen any problem with raccoons. BUT, I have seen Calif. coons 4 times the size of any on the east coast. That may be the difference.
Perhaps you haven't ventured to the north country??..I have trapped coon weighing 45 lbs. not a lot of them, but several. Average is about 25 lbs. I doubt the 45 pounders could knock over a hive that was not already tippy. Now CA does have lions...bears...coyotes....etc. and of course...humans, which gets my vote.
OK, east coast from Va. to Fla.
A monster coon here is 12 to 14 lb. I have seen 35 pounders in Calif., and they were normal, not oversize.
they are as big as smallish dogs here. i have seen them shoot off the back porch and thought it was a dog.
Quote from: iddee on August 07, 2010, 06:12:58 PM
OK, east coast from Va. to Fla.
a monster coon here is 12 to 14 lb. I have seen 35 pounders in Calif., and they were normal, not oversize.
That would explain it. Southern coon are pretty skimpy, but you guys got otters $$$$.
Anyhoo, I still say it is most likely a human.
I hate coons. They are very destructive little critters. If it is a coon, he'll be back. I'd get a live trap and catch him and haul him off. Cat food or sardines is a great bait to catch them. I don't live on bear country so I don't know if the bait would attract them too. Electric fences are a hassel, I don't like them.
Sorry to hear about your hive! How awful! Glad they're okay now, though.
Some additional thoughts on the fence: I use an electric fence with a solar charger because my apiary is in my cow field. If your beeyard is anywhere that grass or weeds grow rampant, then you are taking on another set of maintenance chores that you may or may not have time for. Some hot boxes throw out enough of a charge to burn the grass or weeds as they come into contact with the wire, but during moister times of the year, it can still overwhelm a fence. It's hard to mow around and if you like tidy beeyards, you end up weedwacking, too. Just a thought.
Having said that, if maintenance isn't an issue, then the fence works great 'cause raccoons are so tactile! We use hot wire around our chicken coop to keep the raccoons out and so far so good.
Live traps are awesome, maybe a neighbor has one you could try before investing in one? And, I love the tiedown idea (you've already got the heavy bricks to tie to). If the hive goes over again, you know it's something bigger.
In reply to all the posts, and I do appreciate each and every one of them.
I did not mention that this was a very light hive. 2 medium supers with 2 regular bricks sitting on top stuck to a heavy hive stand. a small hive I have been babying along with hardly any honey in it which makes it even lighter. I had been feeding this hive sugar syrup which might have attracted that animal as well.
The raccoon that was seen down the road shortly after was very large. We do have extremely large raccoons out this way.
I have never had any problems with the raccoons in all the time here and they are all over the place.
My husband is going to help me right now and remove those heavy concrete stones, until I come up with some other solution. I am leaning towards the tie downs you all have mentioned with ties around the hives.
This was definitely not done by a person. My hives are in a very secluded area and also those honey frames were eaten out and left in the dirt.
The hives are looking really good right now and no disturbance since this incident.
I thank you all for all the good information. I am going to print out this topic and keep all this information, especially all the research you all did on the tie downs and the solar electric fences.
Any more disturbance and I am going with the electric fence. Alicia those are good points about the fence, but here things dry up like a desert, so once I mow and weedwack, then nothing grows until winter.
Although I am going to look into trapping that coon since I have not had any problems in 5 years. I am leaving on vacation next week so trapping will have to wait until I return. But I will call Animal Control on Monday and find out about picking up a trap for that purpose.
Thanks again for the encouragement and support.
Sincerely
Annette
the county may have a trapper for nuisance animals. they'll come out and set the thing and pick it up when it's full. if not, look into renting one. check with the feed stores, etc.
The more I think about all this, the more I am leaning towards trapping the animal. This feels like the right thing to do, since I have not had any disturbances to my hives until this happened.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Annette
I found the portable pet stakes which work pretty awesome for there original purpose too unless you have a relentless yanking dog. They are pretty cheap so you may want to consider these.
http://www.nextag.com/Chains-Leashes--zzscrew+in+ground+stakesz2702013zB6z5---html (http://www.nextag.com/Chains-Leashes--zzscrew+in+ground+stakesz2702013zB6z5---html)
http://www.nextag.com/PETCO--2702013/dog-tie-out/brand-html (http://www.nextag.com/PETCO--2702013/dog-tie-out/brand-html)