GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



.TuxE, 1919 



FROM THE FIEID 



BEES VS. SKUNKS 



A Nuisance That May Become Very Serious to 

 Owners of Bees Generally 



Not until the recent convention of the 

 New York State Association of Beekeepers' 

 Societies, held in Buffalo, was the great 

 and wide-spread damage done to the bee- 

 keeping industry by skunks brought to my 

 attention. Strange why an agency so de- 

 structive to bee properties as the skunk 

 should receive so little attention, while so 

 many other obstacles and enemies that mili- 

 tate against the beekeeper in scarcely a 

 greater degree should be the subjects of so 

 much discussion. The opinion may be ven- 

 tured that it is because the beekeeper whose 

 apiary is infested with skunks has regarded 

 his case as an unusual one and therefore of 

 little public interest. Or is it that skunks 

 are rapidly increasing in number and only 

 within the last few years have become a real 

 menace to the beekeeper? I am inclined to 

 the latter view. In a conversation with one 

 of our state inspectors of apiaries recently 

 he advised me that skunks seem to have in- 

 creased in numbers greatly during the last 

 few years and that more apiaries are in- 

 fested and greater damage done by them 

 than formerly. 



The skunk may justly be regarded as a 

 very serious enemy of the bee, as the dis- 

 cussion of the question at the convention 

 proved. Audible smiles, jokes, and gibes 

 at the expense of this quadruped of odori- 

 ferous fame gradually gave way to serious 

 discussion as member after member testified 

 to its regular nocturnal visits to their api- 

 aries at certain seasons and the damage 

 done. It devoloped that one member, Eu- 

 gene E. Sutton, had killed a number of 

 skunks that had been infesting his apiary, 

 saving the skins of some of them, and had 

 been arrested for alleged violation of the 

 New York State conservation law in that 

 he had so saved such skins. So much inter- 

 est was shown in the discussion that an ef- 

 fort was made to arrive at the approximate 

 damage from skunks that beekeepers are 

 now sustaining. A list of representative 

 beekeepers was secured, including many of 

 the most prominent and well-known api- 

 arists of New York State, showing the num- 

 ber of colonies of bees owned by each, the 

 number of skunks they had killed in their 

 apiaries, and the estimated damage done in 

 each of such apiaries during the past season. 

 The data thus secured show that 15 apiarists 

 owning 4,913 colonies of bees had actually 

 killed in and about their apiaries 176 skunks 

 and had sustained damage from their dep- 

 redations estimated at $2,665. Assuming 

 $9.00 per colony to be the not average in- 

 come of the colonies listed, which seems 



liberal, we have an average loss to the api- 

 arists of six per cent that is directly trace- 

 able to the skunk. The list showed that 

 many of the individual losses were far in 

 excess of the average, and undoubtedly 

 small apiaries in localities badly infested 

 would sustain a greater proportion of dam- 

 age than would the larger apiaries. If the 

 skins of these 176 skunks had all been sav- 

 ed, they would have to be sold for over 

 $15.00 each to compensate for the damage 

 sustained by the beekeepers. These figures 

 may be taken as an approximate estimate 

 of what it is costing the beekeepers of New 

 York State in order that skunks be conserv- 

 ed. 



That the skunk nuisance is still in its in- 

 fancy is the opinion of competent observers. 

 It multiplies rapidly and litters of six or 

 more are not uncommon. With its habit of 



His skunkship. 



burrowing deep in the ground or secreting 

 itself far from reach under buildings and 

 in other retreats, the added protection given 

 it under the conservation laws of different 

 States will inevitable result in a greatly in- 

 creased number. Then, too, no other animal 

 is better fitted by nature to perpetuate itself 

 than the skunk, for it is dreaded by animals 

 and men alike. 



In conversation with numerous beekeepers 

 I find the opinion prevalent that the skunk 

 is a real menace. When we consider that its 

 ravages are mostlj' on cool nights in early 

 spring and during the fall, the destruction 

 it accomplishes is easily understood. By 

 scratching at the hive front to attract the 

 bees outside the hive it is able, in a short 

 time, to make a meal of bees which, in early 

 spring, are worth two or three dollars a 

 pound, which is rather expensive skunk 

 food. It works persistently, night after 

 night, at the same hives, eventually consum- 

 ing so many bees as to deplete the colony to 

 the extent that it is incapable of covering 

 and nourishing its brood, often resulting in 



