Woodpeckers and Brood and a Half

[northernsoul]

After 6 winters and feeling quite safe that woodpeckers in my area don't come near my hives, I've been pecked.

Damn and blast etc.

Interestingly enough they've gone for my only colony and first colony ever, to be over wintered on a brood and a half with the brood box at top. The other colonies with brood boxes only, have not been touched.

Is this a common theme?

 

[drstitson]

where have they attacked? the brood or the half? or both?

 

[northernsoul]

Just the brood box at the top. The hives stand on 2 pallets which leaves them about 12-14 inches from ground

 

[drstitson]

if they conform to Euro Pallet standards then i'd assume they're 11.34" off the ground!!!

 

[alanf]

Woodpeckers hunt at least partly by sound. You can see them pause and listen as they make their way up a tree. Possibly went for the noisiest, that is the largest colony and at the height where the cluster would be. If that one had not been the most obvious target, one of the others would have been first, the next in the pecking order as it were. Sorry.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Woodpeckers hunt at least partly by sound.

Not round here they don't,they hunt by smell,thats why they have big long noses,and small ears.

 

[alanf]

Not round here they don't,they hunt by smell,thats why they have big long noses,and small ears.

Not entirely sure if that wasn't meant to be serious. I was watching a green woodpecker on the grass last week before it turned cold, cocking it's head to the side and it definitely looked as though it was listening for ants. It's pretty widely quoted that woodpeckers hunt by sound, one of the reasons often mentioned as to why they drum on timber generally is that they can hear the difference if there are hollows that might contain insects.

"Woodpeckers have very good hearing, and they will be able to hear the insects moving behind the timber, in the same way as they would locate a wood-boring grub inside a tree trunk or other piece of dead wood." An RSPB quote that probably carries more weight than my say so: http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/expert/previous/woodpeckers_house.aspx On the other wing, woodpeckers in general are not a group physiologically expected to have a keen sense of smell: http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Avian_Sense.html

 

[OXFORDBEE]

I've had empty hives attacked in winter. The hives were sealed and didn't have anything inside them to make a noise....Anyway, don't most insect grubs go quiescent in the winter? I appreciate ants probably don't....

 

[RoofTops]

Could be:

just chance

or

the super below gave it something convenient to grip

or

perhaps more likely it was the strongest colony and therefore to the woodpecker presented the most rewarding target. How it knew it was a strong colony (assuming it is) could be based on size of hive (to the woodpecker), warmth it felt from the cluster or the noise the bees made when it hit the side of the hive.

 

[RoofTops]

....Anyway, don't most insect grubs go quiescent in the winter? I appreciate ants probably don't....

I think ants do which is why the green woodpeckers get, well, peckish, ie. hungry.

Ants are the same order (hymenoptera) as bees and wasps so behave a bit like them.

 

[drstitson]

"Not entirely sure if that wasn't meant to be serious. I was watching a green woodpecker on the grass last week before it turned cold, cocking it's head to the side and it definitely looked as though it was listening for ants.'

i think you'll find that many creatures that have acute senses of smell will move heads to localise odours in the 3D "scent-scape" in the same way that we would move our heads to localise in the 3D soundscape.

 

[OXFORDBEE]

Could be:

just chance

or

the super below gave it something convenient to grip

or

perhaps more likely it was the strongest colony and therefore to the woodpecker presented the most rewarding target. How it knew it was a strong colony (assuming it is) could be based on size of hive (to the woodpecker), warmth it felt from the cluster or the noise the bees made when it hit the side of the hive.

I would like to believe the woodpecker listened for bees. However, the hive was empty. The ones nearby were stocked with bees and left completely alone.

 

[alanf]

"Not entirely sure if that wasn't meant to be serious. I was watching a green woodpecker on the grass last week before it turned cold, cocking it's head to the side and it definitely looked as though it was listening for ants.'

i think you'll find that many creatures that have acute senses of smell will move heads to localise odours in the 3D "scent-scape" in the same way that we would move our heads to localise in the 3D soundscape.

Indeed so, lots of mammals move their heads and nostrils to better pick up scents, whether that is food, predator or territory mark related. I'm not aware of any research that suggests woodpeckers in particular have a good sense of smell. Most of the evidence tends to suggest that they are at the other end of the scale, i.e. poor sense of smell.

"Measurements of the longest diameters of the olfactory bulbs and cerebral hemispheres of 46 species of birds are presented. These are compared in each species so that the relative size of the bulb is expressed in per cent of the diameter of the hemisphere. The relatively smallest bulbs are found in Passeriformes, Psittaciformes and Piciformes. The largest are in the Podicipediformes and Procellariiformes. Relatively large bulbs appear to be positively correlated with large hippocampal areas in the brain and aquatic habitat. Relatively small bulbs correlate with small hippocampal areas and tree living." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1528-1157.1959.tb04276.x/abstract

Most of the anatomical measurement work dates from the 1950s and 60s but if there is anything more recent that suggests woodpeckers (Piciformes) have a good sense of smell I can't find it.