Honey Leaking From Hive in Winter

[Mud Songs]

I have four hives that I thought were packed with honey, but the bees in all the hives have been clustering over the top bars at least for the past few weeks, so I decided to play it safe and feed them. I used the dry sugar method over newspaper today and it went well as far as I can tell. (Sure beats cooking up hard candy for them.)

While I was doing this, I noticed the bottom entrance of one hive was sticky with honey. (I tasted it. It could have been a mixture of honey and sugar syrup.) This is only my second winter of beekeeping, so it's the first time I've seen this.

What does a bottom board sticky with honey in the middle of the winter mean? Could it be a mouse stuck inside the hive chewing open the honey comb? Is it something I should be concerned about?

[sqkcrk]

Obviously you are concerned and yes, it could be a mouse. You could tilt the hive back on its bottom board and see what you find on the bottom board. What you describe should not be happening.

[Oldbee]

Are you providing ventilation in the upper part of the hive?

"It could have been a mixture of honey and sugar syrup.)"

How late in the fall did you feed the syrup? Do you think you reduced the entrance, or provided a mouse guard early enough?

Since you've already "tasted it",...let's hope it is not a mouse.

[Mud Songs]

I added half-inch mesh like this around the first week of November (which may have been a bit late):

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

I used a flash light to check for mice beforehand and didn't see anything.

For ventilation I'm using an insulated inner hive cover:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

Which is more or less a piece of hard insulation over the inner cover. The hives are also wrapped. I didn't notice any moisture in the hive while I had the tops off to feed them and I didn't have any ventilation issues with my hives last year using the same set up.

This particular hive was fed heavy syrup all year, starting from a small nuc in mid-July. I stopped feeding syrup around the first week of October and then switched to honey until about the last week of October when they wouldn't take any more.

[Vance G]

A mouse is about the only thing you should try to deal with. Anything else could cause more harm than good. Happy New Year!

[squarepeg]

(wrong thread, sorry)

[Oldbee]

Thank you for the photos. Your method for providing ventilation and protecting against mice are good.

It may have been a little late in Newfoundland to feed the syrup and honey. I would think it gets colder there, earlier in the fall than down here.

Maybe you will have a better idea of what's causing [or caused] the leaking in the spring. Let us know what you find. Hopefully it is nothing too serious.