Bee-Eating Birds

Some birds prey on bees or damage hives. A strong colony can usually make up for the loss of foragers; the real risks are queens being caught on their mating flights, foraging declining under heavy pressure, and woodpeckers breaking into hives in winter. Most of these birds are legally protected; the solution is not to kill them but to plan the apiary and your working calendar correctly.

Which birds cause problems?

• European bee-eater (Merops apiaster): The most important bee-hunting bird in Türkiye. It arrives on migration in spring, nests in colonies in sandy banks and earth embankments, and migrates away in autumn. It catches bees in the air; flocks can concentrate around apiaries especially in late summer, before migration.
• Woodpeckers (especially the green woodpecker): In winter, when food is scarce, they can bore through the wooden hive body to get at the bees and brood. They both damage the hive and break up the winter cluster.
• Tits: In winter they may tap at the entrance and catch the bees that come out; by disturbing the hive they unsettle the cluster.
• Others: Swallows, shrikes and the honey buzzard occasionally eat bees or bee brood; their impact on beekeeping is generally limited.

The real impact

The number of bees taken by individual birds is generally small compared with a strong colony's natural daily losses. The main impact is indirect:

• Queen losses: The loss of a queen on her mating flight is a real and costly loss, especially in apiaries where queens are reared. A mating nucleus or colony whose queen does not return is left queenless.
• Reluctance to fly: Under heavy predation pressure bees fly less; foraging and honey yield may fall.
• Winter damage: A woodpecker hole exposes the hive to cold and rain and can lead to the cluster breaking up and the colony dying.

How to tell

• Birds constantly waiting around the apiary on wires and dead branches and diving among the bees.
• Small pellets of bee wings and hard parts regurgitated by the birds, in front of the hive or beneath their perches.
• At the end of winter, holes gouged in the hive body, in hand-hold recesses and at the corners, with wood shavings nearby.
• Unexplained queen losses without signs of disease in the hive, especially during the mating season.

What can be done?

1. Choose the apiary site carefully: Stay away from the sandy banks where bee-eaters nest, from watersides and from known feeding areas. Sites sheltered by trees or hedges come under less pressure than open ground.
2. Plan queen mating: Time your mating nuclei for periods when bee-eaters are less numerous; avoid mating queens during the pre-migration peak in late summer.
3. Move the apiary if pressure is heavy: Moving an apiary that is under constant predation pressure during the season to another site away from the birds' nesting and feeding areas is often the most effective solution.
4. Protect against woodpeckers in winter: Wrap wire netting around the hives; the netting must stand far enough away not to touch the hive walls. Repair any holes immediately.
5. Keep colonies strong: A strong colony compensates more easily for the loss of foragers.

Scaring methods such as shiny strips, scarecrows and noise-making devices generally have limited and temporary effect; the birds soon get used to them.

What not to do

Most of these birds, above all the bee-eater, are legally protected in Türkiye and in Europe. Killing them, catching them with nets or glue traps, poisoning them and destroying their nests are offences. These species play an important role in the ecosystem by keeping insect populations in balance.