Beehive Mouse Guard

Mice like honey.

Bees make honey.

In winter the mouse seeks honey.

In winter the bee stores honey.

So it makes sense to help protect the hive from intruders.

How to do this?

Fit a mouse guard.

This mouse guard ironically has little archways like the Tom and Jerry style mouse holes you see In skirting boards in a cartoon. It’s made of a strip of aluminium.

The entrance hole to the hive is wide and low. In winter it helps to reduce the size of the access. This has the additional benefit of reducing the passage of cold air and drafts.

Some hives have a slot and holder to keep a mouse guard in place.

The challenge is that when fitting a bespoke mouse guard the bees may object to the process.

So the resident bee keeper has a cunning plan.

A strip of paper and some cellotape.

So while fitting the guard the ladies inside were temporarily contained and as its November there weren’t too many foragers coming home.

Then when it was safely screwed in place the strip of paper and tape could be removed.

When making a guard it’s important to ensure that the holes or bars are not to narrow. This can knock pollen from the returning forager girls legs as they enter the hive.

As soon as we were done this worker demonstrated that the holes were the right size very graciously.