mouse interrupted.

ha ha. The joke was on me.

When I read up on beekeeping and the various pests to keep an eye open for I came across a passage that suggested mice will make nests inside hives. When I read that I knew that my hives were the perfect candidates for just such situations. This affternoon as I was inspecting the hives I thought, "I wonder if there's a mouse in this hive?" And sure enough, after removing a couple of frames--  away from the main bee activity, there he was. Chillaxing. Catching up on General Hospital.

He blinked at me a couple of times and before I could get the camera on him he'd darted into the nearby stone wall.

It was after this that I installed the entrance guard.

I sort of wonder if I wanted that mouse to move in. I could've put the guard in place on Day 1.

I guess my curiousity got the better of me and I wanted to see if a mouse would take up residence in one of the hives.

And aside from a little bit of the wax being chewed off a couple of frames, no harm was done.