something has been at my bees...when i took this photo yesterday it was of a diminished number of cocoons...this morning i found two in the bee house and another half dozen on the ground...irritated, i responded...
the first thing i did was to lash the bee house to the post more securely to eliminate most movement...the critter net would prevent anything too big from getting in the house so i surmise something ( miserable raccoons say ) was batting it around knocking cocoons out onto the ground...
i took off the critter net and opened up the chicken wire on the front of the house...
then i went to the vegetable crisper and got the bee cocoons i harvested last autumn and added them in with the remaining ones from this year in the mesh bag the new ones arrived in...
i put the bag, with the top open to allow the bees a way out, replaced the chicken wire...and pushed the wire in to the house in a concave to hole the mesh bag in...
then i wrapped two layers of critter net around the house and zip tied it to the post securely to prevent any unwarranted access...
in a further show of human vindictiveness i set up a perimeter fence using some old tomato cages and yet more zip tied critter net...
going a step further i spiked the bottom of the critter net to the ground using landscaping pins...i have never had a season without predation on bee cocoons...the first year i had them it was raccoons ( or squirrels...they are not innocent either ) and, in latter years, birds...some survive...my hope is the remainder here hatch out unharmed...it is dicey...nature doenas't care how i feel about the bees and they do have predators...i have done what i can within legal constraints to defend them...once the mesh bag is empty ( one way or another ) some of this can come down to ease bee navigation..they are small...none of this will impede them...still i will clear some off when it seems like it is no longer necessary.
No comments:
Post a Comment