Mouse in hive - now what?

greenbtree · January 01, 2011, 09:52:44 PM

Was out to take an exterior look at my hives. My one hive's entrance was clogged and the mouse guard was out of position so I took a stick to it to clean it out. Bunches of chewed up bees, chewed up comb, and bits of grass. I assume I have a mouse in there. No way I can open the hive - it is 9 degrees today. The bees are still alive in there, I heard them humming when I was raking out debris. So, now what? Can I put a packet of mouse poison in the bottom of the hive and hope the bees don't bother it?
I hate to put poison in there, but do I have another option other than letting the mouse run rampant in there?

JC

BjornBee · January 01, 2011, 09:55:26 PM

Put some traps up around the beehive. Use peanut butter. The mouse will still be killed. Just outside.

iddee · January 01, 2011, 09:57:02 PM

How heavy is the hive. If you can get a couple of guys to lift the hive off the bottom board, you can run him out and sit the hive back down without loosing any significant heat.

AllenF · January 01, 2011, 10:01:30 PM

Could wait for a warm day and go in there after them. :evil:

Robo · January 01, 2011, 10:46:53 PM

I'm with Iddee, pick it off the bottom board or at least split it from the bottom board and tip it up on one end.

I've never had luck with the mouse traps outside the hive during winter. The mice have all the feed they need inside and have no need to go outside. Depending upon how much room you have between the bottom of the frames and the bottom board, I have caught them with a trap in the hive, but that is with a non-standard bottom board.

We were fortunate to have a 40 degree day today, so I made the rounds to check on things. Found one hive with 5 full size mice in it. Luckily the entrance only gave them access to #10 frame and #9 was a honey super cell, so they where isolated from the rest of the hive and the bees.

Hethen57 · January 02, 2011, 12:52:48 AM

Last winter I did the mousetrap on the front porch with peanut butter and it got the mouse within 30 minutes...snap!

BjornBee · January 02, 2011, 08:45:35 AM

Quote from: Hethen57 on January 02, 2011, 12:52:48 AM
Last winter I did the mousetrap on the front porch with peanut butter and it got the mouse within 30 minutes...snap!

I have a two story garage. Sometimes, I'll set out about 10 traps at a time. After setting the five upstairs, I'll be downstairs, and here one snap before I get the other five set.

BTW...my four cats are useless. :-D

After a real fine snow, you can get a sense of how active mice are, from the trails in the snow, going from one hive to another, scouting about, etc. Easy to see which one has mice problems (nest).

gardeningfireman · January 02, 2011, 11:31:42 AM

Since it is so cold, you don't have to worry about the bees breaking cluster. Slide a glue trap in the entrance. Mouse or mice will get caught, and all you need to do is tip back the hive to slide them out.

Yuleluder · January 02, 2011, 11:39:07 AM

I hate when mice get into the hive. However during an early spring inspection last year I found out what happens to a mouse when it stays to long. It seems this poor guy got stuck in between two frames and well the bees had at it on him. He looked like he was stung hundreds of times, and laid dead where he was stuck. Count that as one for the bees!

woodchopper · January 02, 2011, 04:54:34 PM

Quote from: Hethen57 on January 02, 2011, 12:52:48 AM
Last winter I did the mousetrap on the front porch with peanut butter and it got the mouse within 30 minutes...snap!

One of our hives in Maine had a mouse take up residence because we weren't able to put up mouse guards in time. Peanut butter trick worked it's charm sometime within the first 24 hours.

AllenF · January 02, 2011, 05:12:46 PM

Quote from: BjornBee on January 02, 2011, 08:45:35 AM

BTW...my four cats are useless. :-D

Maybe the problem is that you're feeding your cats.

And the last mouse I had in a hive, I lifted the top box with the cluster off and took the bottom box with just the nest and took the torch to the nest. I am sure the word got out to the other mice to leave the white boxes alone.

D Coates · January 03, 2011, 05:09:58 PM

Last year I was late getting the mouse guards on. I saw a few tell tale leaves and grass in the opening one evening when is was around freezing. I got a long stick and started gently pulling the nest out. One mouse came flying out of there. But I kept at it and so did they. By the end 5 mice jumped out and got away. I did get all of their nest (SBB so I could see up in the hive) and I installed the mouse guards. I did watch the hive closely for a few weeks to make sure I didn't lock a mouse in there (chunks of comb and bits of bees on the bottom board). Nope, mouse problem solved. I now have all the hives (and nucs) sitting in cinder blocks with the openings harder to get to and I installed the mouse guards in October.

greenbtree · January 03, 2011, 06:10:14 PM

O.K. I'm going to put a shoe box on a cinder block right up against the opening with a hole cut in it and peanut butter mouse traps inside. I'll let you know how it goes.

JC

slacker361 · January 04, 2011, 05:31:07 PM

shot gun ....... BLAM ...... No more mouse :-D

AllenF · January 04, 2011, 07:30:14 PM

Quote from: slacker361 on January 04, 2011, 05:31:07 PM
shot gun ....... BLAM ...... No more mouse :-D

BLAM...... No more bottom board. Or is that a bottom entrance now?

greenbtree · January 04, 2011, 07:42:17 PM

Or I can really do it up right and just set fire to the whole thing.

JC

rdy-b · January 04, 2011, 07:52:32 PM

been a couple days is the mouse winning-- :lol: RDY-B

slacker361 · January 04, 2011, 08:28:11 PM

Did I get em? :roll:

AllenF · January 04, 2011, 08:37:59 PM

I don't know, show me the pic looking down the other side of the barrel. :-D

Davepeg · January 05, 2011, 07:28:07 PM

In one of my brother's hive there was signs of a mouse being there - comb was eaten and a nest in the bottom. But in spring no sign of the mouse and the bees were just fine up above. Not sure if they just somehow got along or if something bigger got the mouse on one of it's outings out of the hive!