night entrance cluster - slugs?

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Exactly! Not a usually damp area, but constant rain for months on end, onto heavy clay soil meant it was waterlogged. There was nothing we could do about it because water was also draining from higher ground.

The bees didn't seem to take any notice of the slugs, which kept coming back even though they were thrown quite a long way from the hive. I won't use slug pellets because even the so-called organic ones will kill other wildlife, and we've got a good range of birds, mammals and amphibians that we want to keep.

There's something wrong here with your conclusion.

Hives stand in my region all year in woodland and these places absolutely heave with slugs of many varieties. My own hives are in woodland / grassland that also heaves with slugs of many varieties.

There is never a problem with slugs and it is very wet through late autumn and much of the winter, water logged heavy clay ground is normal.The only time I have ever seen a slug on comb is when it's out of a functioning hive.

Chris
 
I can't understand this desire to kill things unnecessarily, it's a most peculiar human trait...

...not wonderful for the species that eat them either.

Chris

I got to the point last year where there were more slugs than the chickens and blackbirds could eat and the slugs were devouring EVERYTHING !

I used a home made Nematode recipe which reduced the population to a manageable level. Nematodes are slug parasites and have no effect on anything that eats slugs apart from the leopard slugs which are cannibals anyway ! Whilst I don't like killing anything there comes a point with some garden pests where you need to do something ... I will only use natural methods (boot or bucket until I discovered Nematodes).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningequipment/8675592/The-war-on-slugs-starts-at-home.html
 
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There is never a problem with slugs and it is very wet through late autumn and much of the winter, water logged heavy clay ground is normal.The only time I have ever seen a slug on comb is when it's out of a functioning hive.

Sorry Chris, but I know slugs have also been a problem for other local beekeepers because we discussed it at some considerable length after a meeting. Some were using slug pellets, but they were melting too quickly in the wet and slugs were still getting into the hives. One said he was removing half a dozen massive slugs each time he inspected and had decided to try copper strips on the hive stand legs. It worked for him and his bees. I copied. It seems to work - and it doesn't kill anything.
 
. One said he was removing half a dozen massive slugs each time he inspected and had decided to try copper strips on the hive stand legs. It worked for him and his bees. I copied. It seems to work - and it doesn't kill anything.

Allegedly the slime that slugs give off reacts with the copper and produces a mild electric reaction which discourages the slugs ... but, once the copper tarnishes it is not as effective - so unless you prepared to do a bit of copper polishing every few months it might not be a perfect solution.

Scrap copper pipe flattened out is quite suitable apparently ....

I'm still with the Nematodes though - I've tried just about everything there is to deter slugs and finally gave up on the Hostas as NOTHING worked !
 
I bought some of that for the veggies. We've got tenacious slugs here, they still managed to get at the plants.
 
Bumping this old thread (and I know there are a couple of others) but today I had a peek through the clear crown board on my long deep hive and there are a couple of big(ish) yellow slugs sat just under the crown board ... there are bees near them but they don't seem to be harassing the slugs. The crown boards in this hive are sealed to the hive with aluminium tape so I was reluctant to disturb them but I really don't like slugs inside the hive. It's a big healthy colony and they don't usually tolerate intruders of any kind at the entrance so I was a bit surprised that these beggars have got in ... must have sneaked in when the bees were hunkered down in the cold the other night.

There appear to be mixed views on here ... some seem to think the bees will kill them and propolise them, other seem to think they don't and slugs can mess up the hive.

So ... should I lift the crown board and hook the slugs out or leave my girls to get on with it ?

Polished copper strips going on all the hive stands before the week is out to put a stop to it.

I do have a problem in the garden with slugs generally ... one of the joys of having a fair bit of the garden 'au naturel' and avoiding chemicals ... so I do see a lot of slugs around the hives but I can't remember seeing one in the hives before.
 
Excess slugs can/will overwhelm a weak colony.

Normally not so much a problem in July (when the thread was started), more so in February.
That said, I've had problems with (packaging poly) home-made mating nucs being destroyed by the things in a particularly wet summer.

Help your bees - open up on the first good flying day and destroy the intruders. Try and find them all.
 
Bumping this old thread (and I know there are a couple of others) but today I had a peek through the clear crown board on my long deep hive and there are a couple of big(ish) yellow slugs sat just under the crown board ... there are bees near them but they don't seem to be harassing the slugs. The crown boards in this hive are sealed to the hive with aluminium tape so I was reluctant to disturb them but I really don't like slugs inside the hive. It's a big healthy colony and they don't usually tolerate intruders of any kind at the entrance so I was a bit surprised that these beggars have got in ... must have sneaked in when the bees were hunkered down in the cold the other night.

There appear to be mixed views on here ... some seem to think the bees will kill them and propolise them, other seem to think they don't and slugs can mess up the hive.


So ... should I lift the crown board and hook the slugs out or leave my girls to get on with it ?

Polished copper strips going on all the hive stands before the week is out to put a stop to it.

I do have a problem in the garden with slugs generally ... one of the joys of having a fair bit of the garden 'au naturel' and avoiding chemicals ... so I do see a lot of slugs around the hives but I can't remember seeing one in the hives before.
Make sure you have gaps in your garden fences to encourage hedgehogs. This is the main reason for the decline in hedgehogs & the increase in slugs. Slug pellets arent good for either of them.
 
Hedgehogs defo.. Great predator but for a quick solution until you have yourself a few hedgehogs (rescue centres are happy for you to adopt them if you have the right habitat) is to find a friend with ducks and borrow them for a bit.. Indian runners are great at eating every snail and slug in existence.. Sadly chickens seem to leave them alone..
 
Make sure you have gaps in your garden fences to encourage hedgehogs. This is the main reason for the decline in hedgehogs & the increase in slugs. Slug pellets arent good for either of them.

Lots of gaps in our fences !! The local foxes make sure of that .. sadly, only seen one hedgehog in the garden in the last ten years .. I don't use slug pellets but I suspect a lot of our prissy garden neighbours do ... don't even see them as road kill in our neck of the woods anymore ... tells a serious story doesn't it ?
 
Indian runners are great at eating every snail and slug in existence.. Sadly chickens seem to leave them alone..

Lucky me, mine do - even the great big greeny coloured ones :puke:

They bash them about a bit, to soften them up, gulp them down and then spend the next 5 minutes stropping their beaks to get rid of the slime: double :puke:

(Do you think I starve my chickens?!!)
 
Lots of gaps in our fences !! The local foxes make sure of that .. sadly, only seen one hedgehog in the garden in the last ten years .. I don't use slug pellets but I suspect a lot of our prissy garden neighbours do ... don't even see them as road kill in our neck of the woods anymore ... tells a serious story doesn't it ?

one thing I blame that never gets mentioned for the demise of the hogs are the rain drains on roads, you know the kerb stones with the large holes in them to take away rain? Hogs will often follow roadside kerbs until they find an easy step up, I am sure they go into these holes & drop into the drain lines, I have seen one do this, it never came back out. sadly these things are on more & more roads these days due to flooding, or should I say flooding because of the lack of dykes. When I was a child dykes on the roadsides used to be full of water & frog spawn, nowadays they seem to fill roadsides with hardcore, thus filling half the space for the water to take before it even starts.
 
I will be reducing the chicken feed forthwith and eating the ducks.. :) (my kids would rebel!!) What breed of chickens have you got?
 
just ordinary little warrens! But the black rock hybrids, welsummers and white leghorn x warrens I had before also cleaned up the slugs :)

(They aren't starved really - according to friends they are spoilt rotten -I just like to give them what I call a varied diet...)
 
Lucky me, mine do - even the great big greeny coloured ones :puke:

They bash them about a bit, to soften them up, gulp them down and then spend the next 5 minutes stropping their beaks to get rid of the slime: double :puke:

(Do you think I starve my chickens?!!)


Someone told me you have to train the chickens to eat them - cut them in half first (The slugs not the chickens...)
 
Someone told me you have to train the chickens to eat them - cut them in half first (The slugs not the chickens...)

much as I hate slugs, I don't think I could do that to them....chooks picked it up all by themselves.
 
So ... should I lift the crown board and hook the slugs out or leave my girls to get on with it ?

I would hook them out, but it's up to you. My bees didn't touch the slugs.
 
I would hook them out, but it's up to you. My bees didn't touch the slugs.

Had a look through the clear crown board again today and was ready to lift it up and hook them out ... no sign of the damn things ... they've either gone down in the hive or the bees have seen them off .. wasn't really warm enough to have a proper delve so left them be and will keep an eye open. Copper tape off ebay is on its way to me ...
 

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