# Is this a sign of skunks?



## Brent (Jun 22, 2009)

I think it may be a skunk. The piles of bee bodies could be where a skunk has eaten the bees and regurgitated the parts he couldn't digest. Haven't seen it personally but I have heard of it described in detail from my mentors.

Brent


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## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

I seen this several years ago in a yard i didn't know what was doing it and on day i went to the yard and found a possum eating on the dead bees on the ground where they had pull out the bees that have died.


I found that skunks like to eat live bees they do this by scratching on the fronts of the hive if the bees are hot tempered they come out and the skunk will turn its tail and the bees ball up in their tail and then the skunk will pick them out and eat them.


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## rkr (Oct 30, 2008)

Most Skunks are born in May and June so they would be a Taurus or a Gemini


Looks like skunk poo to me. They love to eat bugs under pole lights, too. That poo looks like June Bugs.


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

I don't see any sign of scratching, and I know there are skunks in the area. I would be okay with opossums. I'll shoot a skunk if I have to. 'Possums ain't worth the bullets.


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## Mike Gillmore (Feb 25, 2006)

If it's a skunk you will see piles of mashed up bees lying around which look a lot like turds made of crushed bee parts or small wads of chewing tobacco. They suck out all of the bee juices and spit up the remains of compressed bee parts. 

Nightly snacking can really set a hive back and also make them pretty grumpy and unpleasant to work. If you have a problem with skunks try going to a top entrance.


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

Is there a time of night when skunks typically lurk?


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## brushmouth (Jan 17, 2010)

They can't keep their paws out of it, away's some sign of scratching.
If your low electric wire don't do the trick there are sharp strips available. 
OR inverted tack strips from carpet industry ???
(I use a 2 wire electric fence)

BM


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## bigwoodsbees (Dec 24, 2010)

I had a skunk getting into my hive and we put a piece of lath with lots of little brads sticking out of it in front of the entrance and haven't had any more problems with the skunks eating bees. I don't think the skunk likes to rest his little elbows and paws on those pointy little nails!


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## concrete-bees (Jun 20, 2009)

you can set a trap but thats a mixed blessing - a) you caught a skunk b) its a SKUNK c) how to get it out of the trap ???

i trapped one years ago ...... it sprayed everything in sight- so i shot it .... in doing so it sprayed some more .... what a mess.

what might work is getting truss tack plates and screw them on the landing board with the spikes up - that might help also i hear that chicken wire layed on the ground keeps them away also


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

Is that like the the strips you put down at the edges to hold carpet?

I just went out and checked, scanned the trees for beady eyes, saw a rabbit.


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## bigwoodsbees (Dec 24, 2010)

It is sort of like that carpet tack strip which you can buy but it has more spikes. I am not sure whether the carpet tack strips would work as well but they might. They definitely have sharper little nails sticking up and I don't think our friend the skunk would like that at all.


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## concrete-bees (Jun 20, 2009)

here is a link to a picture http://naggama.co.kr/main/china/china_itemView.php?no=123058

they come in lots of sizes 
the carpet strips would work too - those tacs are deadly !!!!!!


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

Most skunk sign will usually show that plant matter will be torn and scratched at the front of the hive along with scratch marks on the bottom board and super near the entrance. If you look close enough, you might even see the trail that they've worn into the grass when they come to feed each evening. your photo's don't look like skunk damage to me and it's usual to have some dead bees out in front of the hive or if the hive is suffering from something else, it could have an even bigger pile of dead bees.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

You could make a dead fall trap then you don't worry about being sprayed when collecting the trespasser. They work good on small animals, but are indiscriminate, so you can get unwanted victims in the squash zone.

Dan


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## dcross (Jan 20, 2003)

A 220 conibear with a plastic cup of cat food wired to the trigger, I've never had one spray that way. NOT SELECTIVE! Or the rabbit sized havahart, thread a sturdy pitchfork through the handle and drop the whole works into a creek. Don't use the raccoon size or get a fork tine in the trap when moving it.

But I got sick of trying to get rid of them, so now I just use a single wire solar fence, planning to go to all upper entrances in the future.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

After losing a few nights sleep trying to resolve my skunk problem (and getting rid of a few) I realized there was a family of them and I needed to sleep. I went to top entrances only and have had no issues since.


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## HVH (Feb 20, 2008)

Michael,

I have most hives with both a top and bottom entrance and have considered top only because the bees seem to prefer it. Do you still need to use mouse guards?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Do you still need to use mouse guards? 

No mouse guards.
No mowing in front of the hives.
No digging the entrance out of the snow so they can take cleansing flights on a warm snowy day.
No skunk problems.
No entrances blocked by dead bees.
No condensation problems.

They are cheap and easy to make.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beestopentrance.htm


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

Michael, you may remember back in 2003 when I came up with my top entrance design.

It's a 3/4" shim made of 3 sticks of 3/4" square stock, attached at the front by a 1x4 landing board.

You can see them used as a bottom entrance in these pictures:
http://parkerfarms.blogspot.com/2011/01/pictures-of-new-apiary.html
You can zoom in on the picture to see better.

I had tried to use only a top entrance with my first hive here in Arkansas and had trouble getting the bees to move down in the hive, but that may have been just a one hive thing. Lately, I have been using one at the top and one at the bottom during the summer for ventilation and then removing the top one for winter (one hive propolized it closed before I could take it off this last fall.)

So I have the option to go straight to that, and I may try to do that this year if the skunk problem keeps up. I put some those carpet tack strips in front of the entrances, but not nailed down, and they haven't been bothered. It seems that the skunk (likely only one, skunks are territorial) has only been eating the dead bees laying in front of the entrances.

This year, we also had the deepest snow I've ever seen at 16", so that aspect interests me. The only problem I have with the concept is that I have had water pool up in the bottom of a hive that wasn't tilted forward before. If there are no entrances on the bottom, couldn't that happen again?


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

I just made a bottom board with no opening. Most of my deeps are from Mann Lake, and their frames sit toward the bottom, so you need to add 1/4" to have proper bee space.

If this skunk thing keeps being an issue, I think I will make a number of deeps that are an extra 1/4" or 3/8" tall and then attach a bottom board permanently. These deeps can serve as the first box on the hives.

Any ideas?


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

New Idea!

Same as above idea, except drill a hole in the front of the box and use a disc entry like they use for nucs. Then I could open it if there don't seem to be skunk problems, or use it as a ten frame nuc etc,.


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