Hello Phelge01,
If I remember and the weather is good next weekend, I will take a camera with me and take a few photos of one of my Kewl floors. The design of the chute and landing board has varied as I played around a bit between individual builds. I have about ten to twelve out in the field at the moment and a few "Temporary" floors too . . . eek!
The twin walled polycarbonate chute is remarkably good. I have only two or three of those at the moment, but it will become a part of my standard going forward for replacements and new items.
I did have an incident last year, when I threw out a small colony in front of a stronger one that had a Kewl floor with Polyprop chute. I did it late in the day and thought no more about it, but came back the next day to find a large heap of dead bees on the landing board . . . Obviously the inmates weren't in the mood for receiving guests and the fact that the entrance was very defendable became apparent. It was a one off, but it doesn't seem to slow up the bees appreciably and I suspect that wasps are unlikely to be much of a problem.
How would I change the basic design that I use? Instead of putting thin battens etc. to support the edges of the mesh, I intend to route the timber and inset the mesh edges, having first filled the grooves with clear silicone work top sealant. I need also to cater for a varroa inspection tray if only for use at treatment time. The entrance chute will also not be full width, but needs to be framed to allow for closing up with a removable screen or queen excluder insert.
Thus far I have used stainless steel #8 mesh for the floors, which are always remarkably clean, but it is quite expensive. My next couple of floors will be made with galvanised expanded steel, which is cheaper, but may not be kept quite so clean by the bees. Time will tell.
