I took a peek at my hives this morning (35F partly sunny) and found one with the mouse guard knocked off. A thick pile of dead bees and wax farfel was on the front porch. I cracked it open and sure enough, a big fat pregnant mouse had set up shop.
The threat has been permanently eliminated and I took out the nest, but now I'm down to about a frame full of bees, although I'm not sure whether the queen survived. There's plenty of honey. This was a smallish hive to start with housed in a single deep, but a couple of weeks ago I had a grapefruit sized cluster. Now most of those bees are dead and chewed up on the bottom board.
So I like this colony but I fear it is not going to make it to spring. Are they likely to even survive the disruption they already suffered from my removing frames to capture the mouse and remove the nest? I'm thinking of transferring to a four frame nuc so they have less space to heat and keeping them somewhere a little more sheltered like a covered porch. Any suggestions?
BTW this is my fourth mouse attack in my short beekeeping career and it seems to me that the mice do more damage by eating bees than eating honey/pollen or comb destruction. Also it seems that the more docile colonies are more prone to mouse damage. I have a slightly more defensive colony that sent a mouse packing on their own.
The threat has been permanently eliminated and I took out the nest, but now I'm down to about a frame full of bees, although I'm not sure whether the queen survived. There's plenty of honey. This was a smallish hive to start with housed in a single deep, but a couple of weeks ago I had a grapefruit sized cluster. Now most of those bees are dead and chewed up on the bottom board.
So I like this colony but I fear it is not going to make it to spring. Are they likely to even survive the disruption they already suffered from my removing frames to capture the mouse and remove the nest? I'm thinking of transferring to a four frame nuc so they have less space to heat and keeping them somewhere a little more sheltered like a covered porch. Any suggestions?
BTW this is my fourth mouse attack in my short beekeeping career and it seems to me that the mice do more damage by eating bees than eating honey/pollen or comb destruction. Also it seems that the more docile colonies are more prone to mouse damage. I have a slightly more defensive colony that sent a mouse packing on their own.