Allen wrote: Has anyone first hand or scientific information about the effect of shrews >on wintering bees? > >We had several yards where we had bad wintering and I saw shrews there. >Coincidence? I don't know. > >If they are the culprits, how does one deal with them? >-- >Allen >[log in to unmask] >www.internode.net/HoneyBee > Used to have lots of trouble with Pygmy Shrews in the winter. This shrew is rare in most locations but at least in my hobby bee yard it is common. The size of this animal is 2.8 to 4.1 inches in total length with the length of the tail 0.9 to 1.4 inches. The half dozen I have caught have not been longer than 3.5 inches. The range of this animal is most of Canada and the Northeast of USA. The way I found out about them was finding an occasional dead specimen in a dead hive. They do not go for the honey, they go for the bees, making the bees break the cluster which is deadly on a cold winter night, I gather that the shrew occasionally get stung enough to die in the hive. The way I cope with them is by modifying my entr. reducers (which are slats with a cutout 3/8" deep by approx. 4" length) by hammering in 5/8" finishing nails one in each end that touches the ends of the cutout and then one every 3/8 inches in a straight line in the middle of the cutout. The reducer is placed with the opening up. No problems have been noticed with cleansing flights. Actually the opening is free of snow and ice faster than reglar reducers due to the fact that as soon as the sun hits one nail it will collect heat for melting. Had I not found a solution I would have had to move my hives elsewhere which I did not see as an option. Viktor in Hawkesbury, Ontario