Laurence Edwards explains how to spot mouse damage in a hive. Look for large flakes of chewed honeycomb at the back, where bees store food. The front stays too cold for mice, so damage clusters where the warmth is.
To me, that's where a mouse has come in, chewed away, eaten the stores, and really set this colony back. Now, looking inside the hive, this is the biggest giveaway. That isn't brood cappings that have been taken off. That's not store cappings that's been taken off. That is big flakes and even bits of honeycomb there. That is the telltale signs that you have a mouse or you've had a mouse in there having a really, really good chomp away. All the way on the back of that there, which is where the bees would have stored their stores, because at the front it's going to be colder.
