It started a normal day, like any other in owland. Mrs. Owl spent over an hour in the box in the morning preening the owlets. One of the owlets even made an attempt to get to that interesting doorway where all the comings and goings are. What must that world be like out there?Well, starting at 1:36, the world began to come to them. For 4 hours bees came in and out, investigating the box, with perhaps 25 or so present at any one time.
Then, suddenly, at 5:40pm, they began to swarm in by the hundreds, exploring the walls, the floor, and eventually clustering on the ceiling. The owlets seemed rather disturbed by all this, but eventually things settled down.
We became very concerned what would happen during the night with all the comings and goings of feeding. We called around to a wildlife rehabber, various beekeepers, and Fred Gehlbach (author of “The Eastern Screech Owl,” the definitive book). The general advice was to get a beekeeper to remove the bees, but the beekeeper we talked to had tried twice already this season with smoke, vacuum, and dust, and neither set of owlets had survived the ordeal. We were also told that there were cases of bees and owls peacefully coexisting, but this didn't seem likely, given the quantity of bees on the ceiling and all the comings and goings related to feeding. So, we took the advice to hang Hot Shot No Pest Strips, which smell foul, have a poison that doesn't harm birds, and was supposed to drive the bees away. We thought this would gradually drive the bees off, as they flew out and chose not to fly back in.
Unfortunately, what began to happen, though, was that the bees began to sicken, and fall to the floor, interacting with the owlets. The owlets began to flick their wings and twitch as if being stung or trying to get the bees off themselves. We called around quickly again, and made the emergency decision to bring the box down and remove the owlets, as the floor was now crawling with bees.
It is always best for baby birds to be raised by their parents if at all possible. So our idea was to clean the bees out of the box, get the owlets a medical checkup, and then return them the same night, or as soon as possible, to the care of their parents.
We gently placed the owlets in a cardboard box filled with wood shavings, and went to our friend Sallie, a raptor rehabilitator. She gave them a thorough checkup. Two of them had been stung on the eyelids, and the eyes were thus swollen shut. The other had been stung on the cere (the flesh that partly covers the bill and nostrils). But they seemed all right, if a bit shell shocked. They spent the whole time out of their nestbox very huddled down, hoping not to be noticed, and seeming very lethargic. But Sallie said they're just terrified, and exhibiting normal defensive behavior.
She then fed them some freshly carved mice to make up for their missing the best feeding part of the evening. She mostly had to open their bills and place it in their mouths directly, because they were so unwilling to move. They did swallow it on their own. She fed them in a box with an older owlet under her care, so he could reassure them with his confident eating behavior.
It is extremely important for owlets to eat whole animal food, bones and all. They need the calcium for their bones to develop properly. Many an owlet hand-raised by non-experts has ended up crippled for life by being fed hamburger or other inappropriate owl foods.
Upon returning home, we cleaned the box, refilled it with wood shavings (never sawdust!), put the owlets back in, and hoisted it back up the tree. Within 20 minutes, the parents began coming with food again. The owlets began acting normal, preening, reaching to take food, and probably happy that the nightmare was over, and the maid service had cleaned the box, to boot. You may notice the clearer view that the camera has.
More photos at Picasa.
What an ordeal. Are you doing anything special to make sure the bees don't return?
ReplyDeleteAs you can read in the subsequent blogs, the bees mostly died in the initial chemical assault. We won't ever do it that way again, having read up on dichlorvos. But as the remaining bees continued to buzz around the day after, we had the strips up on that day, but took them down once the bees no longer hung around (or, perhaps died somewhere outside the box).
ReplyDeleteI think in the future, we'd likely try to get up there and remove the owlets (being well-clothed and head-netted, but risking some bee stings to ourselves), then call a beekeper to remove the bees, and finally replace the owlets. The chemical assault put the bees down on the floor with the owlets, and could have spelled disaster. Plus, we'd rather not kill the bees if not necessary. Bees provide useful ecological services.