Skunks are doing serious damage to my honey bee colonies this winter.
Carpet strips bee hive skunk.
These are usually from skunks trying to get the bees to come out of the hive in order to defend it thus becoming the skunk s midnight snack.
One good preventive measure is to place carpet tack strips you.
Greg muelrath 26 400 views.
This helps keep skunks from scratching the hive with their hands to draw out bees from the safety of the box.
Skunk at the bee hive.
February 18 2018 eric miller.
Saving a bee hive from starvation s4e5 duration.
Yellow jackets duration.
If you don t have a bear fence carpet tack strips attached to a board located at.
I do think a skunk can depopulate a hive with time and the hives population will suffer.
That could be a compounding problem over the course of several days or weeks but as long as we ve.
They seem to be targeting a handful of hives and i m worried those bullied colonies won t make it to spring.
During those times the frequency was more sporadic and the damage was less severe.
In this video i show you up close how a skunk approaches a beehive at night and how he eats the honey bees.
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The skunk is renowned for scratching around the hive entrance swatting the bees that come out to see what all the fuss is about and then contentedly munching on them in their dazed and injured.
I ve posted about critters eating my bees a couple times in the past.
Yes they do they come out at night and scratch the front of the hive and eat the bees as they come out to investigate they will come back every night till the hive is almost empty.
A common solution is to run a strip of carpet tack in front of the entrance.
It may keep raccoons and especially skunks from doing much more than scratching a bit before they wander off and hopefully before the bees get agitated and vulnerable.
But for me i would react differently.
How many bees does he actually eat.
Many of us have bear fences that usually keep out skunks and opossums.