By: Zac Lamas
This article originally appeared in the Spring 2020 issue of BEEKeeping Your First Three Years
Mice are adorable little creatures. With their beady eyes and soft, anxious transfixed look. However cute they may be, they are not welcome amongst beekeepers. Mice are the quintessential prey in the animal world. To protect themselves they look for small, dry cavities that have small openings. A small opening is a self protective measure as it restricts many would-be-mouse-eaters out. They like small spaces and can get into something smaller than you think. Once a mouse has found its den, it will collect fibrous materials and grasses to build a round, fluffy nest. Inside this area the mouse will store food, sleep, and rear its young. Unfortunately for us, unattended equipment is a magnet for a mouse needing nesting space.
A mouse’s presence isn’t benign. Mice seek out unused beehives. They scurry through our hive entrances, and chew out the wax from 4-5 frames, and fill that space with their nest. To add insult to injury, they will defecate and urinate here as well. For a small beekeeper who has limited drawn comb capital, a single mouse can represent a huge loss.
We want to protect our drawn comb. We will do this in two ways. The first, we will mouse proof our stored equipment while it is not being occupied by bees. Second, we will install mouse guards onto the colonies in our apiaries.
Mouse-Safe: Storing unoccupied equipment
Mice can get into spaces smaller than you think. They use their whiskers to gauge the width of a hole. They then squeeze their head into the crevice. If their head fits, then the rest of their body will slip through. The skull is the widest feature on a mouse, as the rest of its body can compress to the size of a dime. They can squeeze into a space around ¼ inch. Anything under 3/8 of an inch is generally smaller than a mouse can get into.
So when we stack our equipment in the garage, barn, shed, we want to keep this in mind when we stack one super of drawn comb on top of another. The bottoms, sides and top need to be mouse proof. This is easily done, and there is no one “right” way to do it. Just make sure you aren’t leaving any gaps, especially at the bottom. Options include:
1. Secure a cut piece of plywood to the bottom-most super.
2. Invert a telescopic outer cover and stack the supers atop of this
3. Fix metal window screen to the bottom.
For the sides, just make sure supers are stacked neatly. If there is gap from a defect in a box, as usual, a little duct tape goes a long way. The top of the stack repeating options 1,2,3 are all fine choices.
Now, this is easier done in colder climates than warmer areas. In New England, where I am from, our first is around the 3rd week of September, and it is all down hill from there until the temperatures start warming up again in April. Wax moths are not a worry. However, in warmer areas, wax moths can also do real harm to improperly stored comb. In addition to mouse proofing your precious comb, you’ll have to take additional measures for wax moths.
This is all you need to make a simple and inexpensive mouse guard. The hardware cloth is readily available at hardware stores. You’ll want ½”. The bricks are there simply to keep the wire from rolling back on itself.
Count 7 or 8 spaces in, and then cut along that row.
Making a mouse guard
Mouse guards can be purchased or they can be made at home. I’ll show you here how to make your own mouse guards that require very few resources and skills. All you will need is some ½” hardware cloth and a pair of tin snips. A flat bench top and a couple bricks are helpful as well.
1. Uncoil the hardware cloth on your bench top. I like to use a heavy weight, like a brick, to keep the hardware cloth from rolling back up on me.
2. I count over ** spaces, and proceed to snip down that row.
3. Next we need to snip our piece to length. We could use a tape measure to measure the interior opening four bottom board or we can simply overlap our snipped piece on a bottom board, and use our eye to cut the piece to length.
4. I will then partially fold the piece in half, length ways.
5. Voila! We have a mouse guard.
Snip the hardware cloth along the row.
You can choose to measure or just cut by eye. It should fit semi-snuggly in between
the rails of your bottom board. Don’t fuss too much over perfecting the cut. Get it close and that will be fine.
Installation is very easy. As visualized below, slide one comer edge into place first, and then push the rest of the mouse guard in. It should be snug. If you cut it slightly short, don’t worry. Believe it or not, a tightly rolled up ball of grass tucked into a small space will keep a mouse out as well.
Partially fold the piece in half, length ways.
Push in with your hive tool.
And all done! If there is a little gap, just roll a tight ball of grass and stuff it in. As seen on the right.
