Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: GSF on December 14, 2013, 08:38:53 pm
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I was just talking with 10framer and I wanted to post this question. Currently we don't have a wild hog problem but it's just a matter of time. Has anyone ever had problems with or have heard of anyone having problems with wild hogs messing with their beehives? It seems like they would love to find a hive that easy to get into.
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i haven't seen it yet. the hogs mostly stay on my neighbor's place and he has(had, he keeps losing it to beetles because he supers it before they cover 5 frames in the brood chamber) one hive with hog sign all around it and no indication that they pay any attention to it. i've seen scat that i'm pretty sure is hog within 10 feet of my hives and they haven't given me trouble.
if you have agriculture and/or water nearby you will have hogs sooner or later.
a few of the national forests in alabama were over run a couple of years ago. aren't you fairly close to talladega? that was one of the places with a problem.
shoot every one you see. if you kill 75 percent of them you are maintaining the population.
be careful handling them because they can carry diseases that can infect humans.
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I had domestic hogs decide they needed to plow the ground under a yard once. 25 colonies as singles were all moved but none were tipped over and raided. I bet if one would have went over, they all would have. I bet hogs is hogs.
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i agree that if they ever knocked one over and figured out that there's a lot of sugar and protein there they'd knock them all over.
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I think pigs REALLY dislike getting stung. They've got a few places where the bees could get through their hide, around the tail and eyes, underline etc. I don't have any personal experience with the issue, but was told as a kid that hogs won't mess with bees.
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I believe you may be right. On further reflection, think of all the bee yards in land now overrun with feral hogs. If they were a problem we would have heard.
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hmmmm ... honey ham ....
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could be. if they didn't mind getting stung yellow jackets would probably be endangered in about half the country by now, nesting in the ground would make them an easy target for hogs.
then again from what i understand they love rattlesnakes and there is no shortage of timber rattlers around my place and 10 or 15 miles down the road there are plenty of diamond backs (funny how when an animal's range stops it stops). i wonder what they do to gopher tortoises.
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When I was a kid, I saw one of our hogs eating a snake. Don't know what king but it was big. I can remember hearing old folks saying you won't see a snake in a pig pen 'cause dey eat them. Something about the layer of fat on a hog keeps the poison from getting into their system.
My big billy got bit 3 times on the leg by a poisonous snake this year. I thought he had broke his ankle until the hair fell off and I saw the fang marks. About 4 years ago I lost a nanny because she got stung (probably) in the mouth by a yj or bb. I was about to lose another one until I figured out she was having an allergic reaction to something and her throat was swelling shut. I crushed up some Benadryl and put it down her throat. Now I keep children's liquid Benadryl on hand in my goat med grab bag.
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About the only way a feral hog will mess with a hive is if you have acorns on the ground around the hives they might root around and knock one over.
As far as hogs and snakes, a snake is a treat for a hog.
We use to catch a snake and throw it in a pen of hogs and take bets whether the snake would make it out or not.
It use to be free range around where I lived, but when they removed the hogs the snake were as thick as fleas on a dawg.