Mouse guard is on and now dead bees are jamming the entrance — do I have to clear it by hand every week all winter?
Drenthe, nine years. I fitted round-hole mouse guards three weeks ago and on two hives the entrance is now half-blocked with dead bees. The undertakers clearly can't drag a corpse through a hole barely wider than a bee, so the bodies pile up in the gap behind the metal and the holes clog one by one.
This isn't a new problem for me and my solution has always been a bent wire and a weekly poke.
What I'd like to know is whether other people solve this properly. Options I can see: a guard with slots rather than round holes, so a bee can be pushed out sideways; a wider entrance with a bar across at mouse-proof height instead of a perforated plate; or simply accepting the weekly clear-out as a winter chore and a useful excuse to check the hives.
And a related question. When I clear a mat of dead bees out, how many is too many? A handful a week in a strong colony is normal winter mortality as far as I know, but at what point does the pile at the entrance tell me something is actually wrong inside?
Slotted guards, and the problem largely disappears — a slot lets the bees work a corpse out sideways in a way a round hole never will. Failing that, mouse-proof height with a bar is what I use on my own floors: about a bee-and-a-half high across the full width, so bodies get pushed out and nothing with a spine gets in. Either way, the weekly poke stops being necessary.
SkaneBees · Oct 24, 2026
Skåne. On numbers: a strong colony loses a few hundred bees a week in winter and most die away from the hive, so a small heap at the entrance is normal and a tablespoon or two a week means nothing. What would worry me is a large pile appearing suddenly, wet bees, or bees with deformed wings and distended abdomens in the pile. Quantity alone is a poor signal.
QuebecBees · Oct 25, 2026
Quebec. Agreed, and for anyone in a snow region — if you're clearing entrances anyway, that's the moment to check for ice rather than bees. A dead-bee mat plus a glaze of ice after a thaw is how an entrance actually seals shut.
DrentseBij · Oct 25, 2026
Ordering slotted guards for next year and converting two floors to a barred entrance this winter to compare. Thanks — nine years of poking with a wire and I'd never asked whether there was a better way.