mice!! two dead outs.

The master beek who showed me the way told me," I'v made every mistake possible and most of them twice" I laughed and said that i look forward to making those mistakes. it was 50 deg. today so I checked my two "at home" hives" No activity. Opened it up and was stared down by a who the heck are you mouse. about 30 lbs of honey still capped. This was my strongest hive ( I only have 4). The hive next to it, same deal.The other two are flying today but I feel a deep sense of shame. My "mouse free", yard has shown me how much I have yet to learn. Keep those mouse guards on or you will learn the hard way as I have. Shame on me!!!!!! Needless to say, I now have the extra equipment and honey to try my hand at splits and nucs. Give me hell, I deserve it.:s

No need to give you heck, the mice did that already...:) Several things amaze me and they are how can mice, mites, and SHB find my hives the first year they are in my yard?? I monitered my hive the first year I wintered them w/o mouse guards and although I didn't get any damage to amy comb, I found droppings in my freeman traps from time to time. I just ordered up a bunch of mouse guards! I bet you never forget to use them again!! :D

I had that happen on two of my hives. Wanted to get me a flame thrower, and detroy every mouse in the neighborhood, and maybe singe a few neighbors. :D Then I had a mouse get into a deadout box in the garage....so I put an excluder on the bottom and top of the box. Figured if it can exclude a queen, and can exclude a mouse...sure enough. big fat mouse dead under the excluder.

I use 1/2 inch hardware cloth, mice can't get in but the bees can haul the dead out.

I stood there contemplating my options, BB gun, 30-30, 12 gauge,30-06.... finally settled on crunchy peanut butter in a mouse trap on the landing board. I'm sure they are already dead. What kills me the most is one of these hives was the most absolute docile hive you could imagine. I worked this hive with no gear and would smoke them with a couple puffs from a cigarette. That queen was going to be my genetic base.

I can empathize. Happened to me, too. Two hive, like you. Only mine were voles! To add insult to injury, they ate a hole smack through the comb! About seven of them scattered when I took the cover off. Another one of those instances where I learned from my mistakes. Now, mouseguards are in place throughout the winter months!