Methods for scaring away bee-eaters in a home apiary

Birds of prey that feed on insects can cause significant damage to the beekeeping industry. Aggressive flock of winged hunters literally in a few days destroys most of the worker bees, which leads to a decrease in honey yield in the summer. Financial losses in this case are inevitable.

The content of the article

  • 1 Who are the bee-eaters
  • 2 Methods of struggle
  • 3 Using fishing nets
  • 4 Using sounds
  • 5 Using CDs or DVDs
  • 6 Using ratchets and homemade scarecrows
  • 7 Problems with the nature conservation service

Who are the bee-eaters

One of the breeds seen as a pest in the apiaries of the middle lane is the bee-eater from the order of Raksha-like. Birds of this breed are also found in Africa, Asia, Australia, Madagascar and New Guinea. There are more than 20 species and subspecies of bee-eaters living in different regions of our planet.

On the territory of the former Soviet Union, the golden and green bee-eaters most often hunt. These are voracious and active birds willingly attacking honey bees.

In appearance and flight, both species resemble swallows. They have long and sharp wings, an elongated tail, and a thin and curved beak. The average body length is 20-22 centimeters.

Golden Bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) have a golden brick color of the head and back. The throat is yellow, and there is a black stripe on the head, stretching through the eyes to the back of the head.

green bee-eater

Green bee-eaters (Merops persicus) colored more varied, but their plumage is not so bright. They live in the southern regions. They have a faded emerald green body color. The lower plane of the wings is bright red. The neck is chestnut or reddish. The forehead is blue and white. The eyebrows and under the eyes are also blue.

Both species are often called bee-eaters, as birds willingly settle near apiaries and hunt bees. They prefer terrain along the cliffs. They can be found on the steep walls of ravines, near water bodies and roads. Here predators set up nesting caves. They prefer sandy and clayey soils, in which they deepen by 1,5-2 meters.

They keep in flocks and live in large colonies. Individual nests can be found only along the boundaries of the distribution area. But they too soon turn into full-fledged colonies. Birds lay up to 7-9 eggs in one nest. Due to this, the colonies grow rapidly.

bee-eater in flight

They hunt flying insects. In sunny weather, they pick up food on the fly, and on cloudy days they fly to the apiary, looking for bees near the entrances. In the diet of birds, in addition to bees and other stinging insects, there are cicadas, dragonflies, and flying beetles.

They are distinguished by their special gluttony. An adult can eat up to 40-50 g of bees (150-180 pieces!), Which is almost equal to its live weight. Hunting stops only after the goiter is completely filled. Also, insects caught on the fly go to feed the chicks.

In the diet of birds living near the apiary, up to 90-95% of the feed is made up of working bees. From 700 to 1 bees are killed per day. And this is the norm for only one hunting bird!

Bee-eaters pose the greatest danger to apiaries from July to August, that is, during the period of emergence and maturation of chicks. In some regions, they hunt in May and autumn, during a flight to the southern regions.

Methods of struggle

The question of how to scare off the bee-eaters from the apiary worries most of the beekeepers of the middle and southern strip. Here birds find acceptable living conditions for themselves – they gladly populate cliffs, areas along the roads. Sometimes caves or minks are built by predators on flat terrain, provided there is a suitable soil composition.

cliff caves

To protect the apiary, beekeepers use two methods:

  • scare away voracious birds;
  • change the parking lot when it comes to nomadic beekeeping.

The average size of a bird colony is 500-1 heads. This number of winged hunters poses a serious threat to any apiary. The beekeeper has to give up to 000 bees per colony per day, which is an unaffordable luxury.

It should be noted that the shooting of pests from a gun or “air” does not bring the desired results. This is a time consuming and costly endeavor. After all, bird colonies are large enough and, as they say, you can’t shoot everyone. Buying “ammunition” all summer is simply not economically viable.

In addition, birds are difficult to track down and even more difficult to hit. These winged predators are quite agile, and they prefer to attack bees in the early morning with the first rays of the sun, which makes it difficult to shoot. Yes, and shooting in the village from hunting rifles is prohibited, and if you use “air”, the expected effect is more difficult to achieve.

Using fishing nets

The use of various traps and scarers will bring more benefits than shooting birds.

For example, the beekeepers hang old nets along the apiary… A tackle with a mesh size of 3-5 centimeters is suitable for catching bee-eaters. A kind of protective system is mounted from the networks with the help of posts. As a result, the hives will be covered from the sky.

network use

The caught birds scream loudly, frightening off their relatives. If at least one bee-eater is caught in the net, the predators will bypass the apiary for at least one or two days.

Of course, this method cannot be called humane, given the fact that bee-eaters are an endangered species of birds. But as an effective means of fighting the winged robbers, when other methods have proved ineffective, fishing nets will still work.

Using sounds

Bee-eaters, being predators, are themselves afraid of larger birds. For example, their colonies are easily destroyed by kites, sparrowhawks (Accipiter nisus) and goshawks (Accipiter gentilis). For this reason, winged robbers are genetically afraid of the cries of a kite or a hawk.

Of course, keeping the kite at home will not work. It will take too long to train. It’s easier to use sound simulation. For this, the sounds made by the kite are transmitted to the apiary using a tape recorder or loudspeaker. True, the effect of this method is short-lived. Not detecting a real threat to their lives, bee-eaters cease to be afraid and fly freely near the hives.

It is advisable to use sound imitation infrequently and for a short time. In this case, the effectiveness of the method will increase.

You can also frighten off bee-eaters from the apiary with a modern sound simulator of domestic production – “SAPSAN-3”… It is suitable for the protection of beekeeping farms, orchards, vineyards, melon fields, orchards from various pest birds.

The video briefly discusses the benefits of this bird repelling system.

Using CDs or DVDs

This method involves hanging old CDs or DVDs in the apiary. The sun’s rays reflecting off the discs create glare that disorient the winged predators and interfere with their hunting.

The birds are poorly oriented in space, they have a slow reaction, some lethargy in flight – as a result, the bees avoid the voracious beak.

It is believed that the discs resemble the eyes of a kite or other large hunters from the bird family. However, the point is most likely precisely in the visual disturbances created, and not in a successful imitation of the eye.

The effectiveness of the method is provided by artificial slowing down of the natural hunting reaction in birds – because of glare, they react slowly and awkwardly to flying bees.

Using ratchets and homemade scarecrows

In beekeeping literature, it is recommended to use ratchets to scare away birds. Alternatively, an empty bucket and a wooden mallet will work.

This method will not be able to completely get rid of bee-eaters in the apiary. In practice, the method works only for two to three days. After that, the ratchets will only help to drive away the most arrogant predators that have flown into the hive entrances on a cloudy day.

The greater effect will give application of “flags” made of polyethylene… From this material, panels with an area of ​​1,5-2 square meters are cut. meters. “Flags” are mounted on three-meter poles and installed in the apiary. The wind blowing with plastic creates a noise that scares annoying birds around the clock.

owl layout

A two-sided owl layout helps a lot… In it, birds are frightened off by the alternation of colors. The model should be at least 60-70 cm high. It is installed on the tallest tree near the push, towering over its crown, or on a pole of a suitable length – a properly installed “owl” rises 4-6 meters from the ground.

Problems with the nature conservation service

The golden bee-eater is listed in the Red Book both in Russia and Ukraine. But in recent years, her livestock has increased markedly. Therefore, the question of excluding a bird from the protection book is periodically raised.

No one can guarantee that the bird population will not grow to catastrophic proportions and that the bee-eats will not become the most dangerous pests in apiaries. Issuing permits for mass shooting of predators can solve the problem. But this cannot be done without the support of beekeepers at the state level.

You can read about the fight against other enemies of bees in our separate article: Fight against pests of bees in an apiary

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Anna Evans

Author ✓ Farmer

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