Mice will only need a 5 mm gap to enter. I know everything is "bigger over there", but hardly when it comes to mice. The rabbit metal guard is totally useless, they can slide sideways in on a skateboard through the oversized holes. Factory made beehives "over here" are normally made with an entrance just under the limit (height) on what most mice can enter. (They enter into a higher slit seen from the outside, but a few centimeters in, they have to go under a low gap to enter the hive). When I made my own hive entrences, I meassured this timely and never had any problems. A faulty production batch on the factory produced hives had a mm too much and mice came quickly in. I replaced these and never saw any mice again. By the way, I really like your videos. Very well made and interesting to watch and very educational.
@Cindy Dotson Glad your enjoying the videos but now that I know your in Texas I wanted to make sure your not getting me confused with "JCs HoneyBees"? He is in Texas and I am in Ohio. A lot of people get us confused due to our names being so close in wording.
The metal mouse guard has another advantage, you can just lift them up and rake out dead bees as well without disturbing the hive or cracking anything. I have used them year-round and are just great!
I do have a question for you Jason or anyone else that could help me. I live in Oklahoma and we just got our first frost last night. I've never really had a bad beetle problem until a week ago maybe more. I treated my hives for varroa mites like I always do and I use beetle blasters to take care of beetles. Well when I removed the dried out strips from my 6 hives 7 days later, one of my biggest hives was being taken over with beetle larva. They were destroying the honey and frames, and I had 6 beetle blasters in that hive. It's a double deep 10 frame. But the blasters are working on the other hives, and this one hive was fully packed with bees so it wasn't that I didn't have enough bees in there. But I set the frames out and let the frost kill the beetle eggs and larva. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks
I am no expert but maybe I can try to help. Is your hive tilted forward? If it's level or reclining then hive debris will build up on your bottom board and give the beetles a perfect place to hide and reproduce. Clean off your bottom board. Don't feed any subs now until the problem is solved. Try multiple different types of traps may help also. Hope some one else can give you more advice. Keep the hive strong feeding 2:1.
Hello Steven, I feel your pain with these beetles. They are a pain in the butt! I am not sure frost is enough to kill beetles and larva though, I think they need a deep freeze. That why it's suggested to freeze the frames with beetle damage. I just started to experiment with the beetle blasters and beetle barns, they do seem to work but in my opinion not good enough. You need to reduce the amount of beetle being able to enter. Do you have entrance reducers on? How many entrances do you have? I'd think now that your getting cold weather the beetle population with start dropping so at this point you only need to be concerned with the active beetles in the hives. Maybe try adding Swiiffer sheets to the hive and see if that helps drop the beetle population.
Jason, Scott here from California. We are starting to hit 40 degrees at night. And 70s in the days just wondering how many frames or size of brood nest I should have? They have lots of stores because I didn’t harvest any honey in the fall. Infact a medium and deep full on 2 hives and 2 others with mediums full. And a trap out I did is in a deep 8 with 3 to 4 frames of resources. Just would like your opinion. Do I have to much food in other hives?
Your welcome! Glad you enjoyed it. I can't see that it would hurt anything leave guards on but it would be hard to remove reducer. In the summer months there can be a lot of foragers and the entrance may need opened more.
@@JCsBees I see, that makes sense. I have a lot to learn. I've been doing a mass amount of research in preparation for an apiary. I have the hives now but bees won't be here until April unless I catch a swarm. Until then, I'm trying to absorb as much information as possible. I appreciate your videos and expertise!
Mice will only need a 5 mm gap to enter. I know everything is "bigger over there", but hardly when it comes to mice. The rabbit metal guard is totally useless, they can slide sideways in on a skateboard through the oversized holes. Factory made beehives "over here" are normally made with an entrance just under the limit (height) on what most mice can enter. (They enter into a higher slit seen from the outside, but a few centimeters in, they have to go under a low gap to enter the hive).
When I made my own hive entrences, I meassured this timely and never had any problems.
A faulty production batch on the factory produced hives had a mm too much and mice came quickly in. I replaced these and never saw any mice again.
By the way, I really like your videos. Very well made and interesting to watch and very educational.
Always learn something watching your videos . Thank you .
Thanks !!
Inexpensive way to keep mice out. Great use for that extra 1/2" hardware cloth.
Good information Jason. Thank you.
Great video, Jason! Thanks for creating and posting.
Thanks for the info.
very informative video jason. thanks
Thanks, Jason. I really enjoy all your video's. Here in East Texas, we don't worry about mice. Keep us informed.
@Cindy Dotson Glad your enjoying the videos but now that I know your in Texas I wanted to make sure your not getting me confused with "JCs HoneyBees"? He is in Texas and I am in Ohio. A lot of people get us confused due to our names being so close in wording.
@@JCsBees No. Thanks anyway.
The metal mouse guard has another advantage, you can just lift them up and rake out dead bees as well without disturbing the hive or cracking anything. I have used them year-round and are just great!
Very good point I never gave that a though until now. Thanks!
Thanks..great information.
J.C: "Mice will eat a hole in wood to get in the hive" (leaves 75% wood for mice to get in the hive)
Thank you Jason
I would like to know where you got your Metal pipes from the orange ones underneath the Beehives
ruclips.net/video/5vbcahBiUqQ/видео.html
I do have a question for you Jason or anyone else that could help me. I live in Oklahoma and we just got our first frost last night. I've never really had a bad beetle problem until a week ago maybe more. I treated my hives for varroa mites like I always do and I use beetle blasters to take care of beetles. Well when I removed the dried out strips from my 6 hives 7 days later, one of my biggest hives was being taken over with beetle larva. They were destroying the honey and frames, and I had 6 beetle blasters in that hive. It's a double deep 10 frame. But the blasters are working on the other hives, and this one hive was fully packed with bees so it wasn't that I didn't have enough bees in there. But I set the frames out and let the frost kill the beetle eggs and larva. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks
I am no expert but maybe I can try to help. Is your hive tilted forward? If it's level or reclining then hive debris will build up on your bottom board and give the beetles a perfect place to hide and reproduce. Clean off your bottom board. Don't feed any subs now until the problem is solved. Try multiple different types of traps may help also. Hope some one else can give you more advice. Keep the hive strong feeding 2:1.
@@russellkoopman3004 Yes my hive is tilted forward, And I have screen bottom boards on all my hives.
Hello Steven, I feel your pain with these beetles. They are a pain in the butt! I am not sure frost is enough to kill beetles and larva though, I think they need a deep freeze. That why it's suggested to freeze the frames with beetle damage. I just started to experiment with the beetle blasters and beetle barns, they do seem to work but in my opinion not good enough. You need to reduce the amount of beetle being able to enter. Do you have entrance reducers on? How many entrances do you have? I'd think now that your getting cold weather the beetle population with start dropping so at this point you only need to be concerned with the active beetles in the hives. Maybe try adding Swiiffer sheets to the hive and see if that helps drop the beetle population.
@@JCsBees I have 2 entrances and I just put my entrance reducers on last week
Jason Chrisman 1
Jason, Scott here from California. We are starting to hit 40 degrees at night. And 70s in the days just wondering how many frames or size of brood nest I should have? They have lots of stores because I didn’t harvest any honey in the fall. Infact a medium and deep full on 2 hives and 2 others with mediums full. And a trap out I did is in a deep 8 with 3 to 4 frames of resources. Just would like your opinion. Do I have to much food in other hives?
Jason, can you please talk about the Sumac experiment you mentioned a few vids back?
That video is coming, I'm just try to help the new beekeepers get their hives ready for winter first.
Should you staple the screening on the front? Thanks Jason.
Yes staple will help hold it in place. I wouldn't go nuts with the stapler though, just a few will be good.
Thank you Jason, appreciate the video.
Would it hurt anything to leave the mouse guards on year round here in south FL?
Your welcome! Glad you enjoyed it. I can't see that it would hurt anything leave guards on but it would be hard to remove reducer. In the summer months there can be a lot of foragers and the entrance may need opened more.
@@JCsBees I see, that makes sense. I have a lot to learn. I've been doing a mass amount of research in preparation for an apiary. I have the hives now but bees won't be here until April unless I catch a swarm. Until then, I'm trying to absorb as much information as possible. I appreciate your videos and expertise!
🍻🍻