Drove back to the yard this afternoon to check on the hives. Immediately, I saw something strange in one of the entrance holes of my yellow tbh. It was a fat field mouse with half of its body hanging out head first. I pulled the mouse out and discovered the girls had defended the hive quite well. There were several stingers in the mouse's rear section. I think the mouse crawled in and was stung once or twice and then tried to retreat from what I am seeing. It was in a matter of seconds of pulling the mouse out that several girls approached the entrance to see what the noise was all about. A few of them literally died in front of my eyes that ventured outside. The temp is in the low 20's. I will need to put some type of a guard on the holes soon. I am sure the bees will not be able to defend the hive too many times like this with their numbers being lower.
