"Mr William L Hughs Jr" Wrote 20 Jan 96 >Subject: Re: Saw dust in front of hive >When I inspected my colonies today one of the had what appeared to be >sawdust. It was like wet wood mixed with yellow flakes. It was >nearly blocking the entrance and was on the ground in front of the >hive. My other colonies do not have this. This is my first winter >keeping bees and I have not send a reference to this in any of the >books I have. Does anyone have any ideas what this might be, and do >I need to be concerned. Just a guess , but I have seen and heard on warm winter days, (about Freezing Point), little piles of saw Dust beside old logs and a chewing sound coming from the wood. With close inspection, directly above the saw dust were small holes (about 1/16"). There were small wood grubs of some sort in there chewing up the wood and pushing it out. It would in turn leave a small pile of wood on the snow below the hole. if you are quiet for a minute they will start chewing agian ,it is loud for a little bug. Maybe this will help. ************************************** * Stephen. Reddick * * Barrie, Ontario, Canada * * http:[log in to unmask] * **************************************