Do bees vary in size?

[Dekzion]

This question is because I've noticed that the poly hive bees in the paradise honey hive struggle to get through the door! okay it's got drone slots on the end but I feel sorry for the girls coming in and out and struggle.
Also, all my bees struggle to get through the excluders be they plastic, metal or bamboo. This has got to be causing congestion and promote swarming hasn't it?

 

[Sutty]

I have some paradise hives, the bees get in and out just fine, and the slot is big enough for drones & queens too.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Also, all my bees struggle to get through the excluders be they plastic, metal or bamboo

there's plenty of space for worker bees to get through excluders (apart from a duff batch of plastic ones which were on the market for a while over ten years ago) - the only ones who can't are drones and queens.

okay it's got drone slots on the end

? why?

 

[Dekzion]

there's plenty of space for worker bees to get through excluders (apart from a duff batch of plastic ones which were on the market for a while over ten years ago) - the only ones who can't are drones and queens.

? why?

To let the drones out?? it's a round hole that can be covered by the sliding door. I shall have to do a short vid so's people can see the problem and definitely the excluders too.

 

[Dekzion]

does anyone offhand know the size the excluder slots are supposed to be?

 

[Antipodes]

does anyone offhand know the size the excluder slots are supposed to be?

On my excluders - four or five different manufacturers, they vary from 4mm to 4.40mm.

 

[Sutty]

Here's one of mine, no problem entering & leaving.

 

[warsaw_hive]

Yes bees do vary in size.

But so do the size of queen excluders. I bought some metal entrance discs from Simon the beekeeper's closing down sale, and the slots on them (which I assume are supposed to be a queen excluder) are very tight, it's painful to watch a bee go through them. I took my file to them. Similarly the plastic excluders on Chinese made queen rearing nucs are very narrow. This might well be by design to stop a virgin queen, but I took my Stanley knife to them and widened them to a normal range.

Dave Cushman has a queen excluder page with measurements.

 

[fian]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ses-Parliament-Guinness-World-Record-Day.html

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

That's the trouble with the Daily mail online - you can't even use it to housetrain your puppy

 

[jarmo henttu]

I have some paradise hives, the bees get in and out just fine, and the slot is big enough for drones & queens too.

The size do not vary much. At least it has not been a problem.

The workers weigh becomes 40% bigger when is it eates itself full of honey.

 

[fian]

Height in humans is distributed according to a Gaussian variable (normal distribution). The case of the Daily Mail corresponds to both extremes, which happens in very low proportions (3% on both sides).
By the way, it is known that there are more than 700 parameters that determine the height of a certain individual. We still do not know if the size of a bee is conditioned or not and by what parameters.
On the other hand, the problem with meshes is technical since lacking a regulatory framework, a manufacturer will provide a product that requires little modification with respect to its industrial configuration.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I've never had an issue with midgets getting through my queen excluders