Bloody Woodpeckers

As you will have seen on the thrilling YouTube video, woodpeckers can cause damage to bee hives.
Today I went to the Ravensden apiary to repair the damage to the Poly Nuc and the other hive with some filler and once I had done this I just had a quick wander round.
Bees were coming out of the Poly Nuc, Hive 4 and the Nutters. Things were quiet with the Snow Queen but a quick peek under the crown board and things looked OK.

Last year I set up a Top Bar Hive as a result of going to a presentation by a BBKA member about beekeeping in Africa where this type of hive is commonly used.
http://northbedfordshirehoney.com/types-of-hive/

I didn't take any honey off it and pretty much left it alone apart from a 'natural' varroa treatment late in the year. Although they seemed to be doing well, unfortunately they didn't make it through the winter.

Towards the end of the year it had bowed slightly and so I went to have another look at it to see what could be done about straightening the sides. As I approached it I could see some damage to the rear of the hive and a woodpecker had made a substantial hole in it and had damaged several frame bars.

Its going to take a bit of work to fix it but the really disappointing thing about it was that several of the frames were full of capped wet honey. If there was plenty of honey then why did they not survive the winter?

When I got the hive  I was told by a couple of beekeepers not to bother with it and I should have put the bees in a 'proper' hive. 
Well, I'm going to ignore them and keep it going this year.
I hope to get a few more complete colonies in brood boxes so I will also get a new colony to put in the Top bar and luckily a member of BBKA recently emailed members saying he has some.