bees chewing

JRS · September 08, 2007, 11:13:21 AM

what causes the bees to chew holes in the side of the hive?

Jerrymac · September 08, 2007, 11:28:43 AM

Are you talking about bees chewing holes in the wood?

Michael Bush · September 08, 2007, 11:30:19 AM

Bees can't chew holes through wood. What do you have? Styrofoam?

BlueEggFarmer · September 08, 2007, 11:40:35 AM

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.

Dick Allen · September 08, 2007, 01:19:43 PM

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.

Michael Bush · September 08, 2007, 02:52:46 PM

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.

JRS · September 08, 2007, 03:27:30 PM

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.

Dick Allen · 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.

Mici · September 09, 2007, 03:24:02 PM

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.

Michael Bush · September 09, 2007, 10:57:25 PM

>so...bees can't penetrate fruit, but they can chew wood

My thinking exactly...

Understudy · September 09, 2007, 10:59:29 PM

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

rdy-b · September 09, 2007, 11:34:40 PM

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

Brian D. Bray · September 10, 2007, 12:21:22 AM

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.

JP · September 10, 2007, 02:50:46 AM

Honeybees chewing through wood? :? :? :? :? :? :? :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :roll:

genesbees · September 10, 2007, 12:23:19 PM

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.

Dick Allen · September 10, 2007, 02:26:58 PM

>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?

TwT · September 10, 2007, 02:40:34 PM

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.....

Understudy · September 10, 2007, 04:20:17 PM

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

TwT · September 10, 2007, 04:23:04 PM

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!!

JRS · 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?