Hive entrance

[B+.]

Ok, I understand commercially it could be an issue, but for self production is having pollen in the supers a problem? For example, would it make the honey spoil once extracted and bottled?

Pollen doesn't spoil the honey although it may make it appear a bit cloudy.
The problem would become immediately apparent to you when you tried to extract a frame of honey with areas of pollen: the honey would spin out but the pollen wouldn't. The comb would blow out with a loud bang,

 

[Goran]

Do you get a lot of pollen in the upper box Goran? I notice that there is a lower entrance too so, clearly, the queen and drones aren't sealed in.

They don't bring much of pollen, when brood isn't above. Due to my operations when I lift up unsealed brood, they do bring up in that or neighbouring frame some pollen. But I see no problem in that.
As black locust is my main forage, itself has little pollen anyway. Before it I strip off all honey in supers or mark the frames which are stuffed with spring honey and extract at the end as spring honey ( slower crystalisation due black locust). This isn't drastic for the bees because I wait to main forage start, then first days of it I extract spring honey. So bees just continue with forage and if want I can extract right beside the hives and none of bees will pay attention toward the taken frames, they are seduced with black locust and only see its flowers. In that time you can do with poor bees whatever cross your mind.
Also some colonies are bringing pollen as mad and I intentionally lift up such pollen rich frames to make room below excuder for the queen ( fermented pollen or "perga" as we say) and use later for splits and young colonies for " unbelievable boost".
Fermented pollen is treasure for colonies, at least by my opinion.
When extracting, I have "manual" extractor since for 50 colonies it is sufficient and if want to extract such pollen rich frames I carefully extract and comb stay intact.

 

[REDWOOD]

I like my girls to wipe their feet on the landing board before entering their hive
I have never tried it an not likely to, just the bottom entrance works for me even with five boxes on, if the bees are in a bit of a rush I find they will put some nectar in the BB first and move it later. The only disadvantage I can see with two entrances is the colony will need two sets of guard bees and if a colony is not particularly good at defending themselves then they could be prone to robbers and wasp attacks.

 

[Tremyfro]

Last year...when I was hoping to make some queen cells...I had 2 brood boxes with a super and a QE between them.....so I put an extra entrance above for the drones to escape....and did they...Noooo.....they accumulated in the top brood box like lemons! When we lifted the cover board...Whoosh...out they came.....silly boys!
On reflection...having discovered that they collected on top of the frames....perhaps an entrance above the second brood box could have been a better option. I did see bees using the entrance though.

 

[Swarm]

They don't bring much of pollen, when brood isn't above. Due to my operations when I lift up unsealed brood, they do bring up in that or neighbouring frame some pollen. But I see no problem in that.
As black locust is my main forage, itself has little pollen anyway. Before it I strip off all honey in supers or mark the frames which are stuffed with spring honey and extract at the end as spring honey ( slower crystalisation due black locust). This isn't drastic for the bees because I wait to main forage start, then first days of it I extract spring honey. So bees just continue with forage and if want I can extract right beside the hives and none of bees will pay attention toward the taken frames, they are seduced with black locust and only see its flowers. In that time you can do with poor bees whatever cross your mind.
Also some colonies are bringing pollen as mad and I intentionally lift up such pollen rich frames to make room below excuder for the queen ( fermented pollen or "perga" as we say) and use later for splits and young colonies for " unbelievable boost".
Fermented pollen is treasure for colonies, at least by my opinion.
When extracting, I have "manual" extractor since for 50 colonies it is sufficient and if want to extract such pollen rich frames I carefully extract and comb stay intact.

Great post as usual Goran.

 

[Goran]

Great post as usual Goran.

Thanks. I hope when I write that it doesn't sound what I do is better than you or others do. I just share what is my practice and someone can use it or just be as some interesting info how others do or think about beekeeping.

Also I before mentioned that framed QE I use as part of cloake board. I place beneath hard cardboard as " board". After use I " recycle" cardboard and again use new one if new cycle start. It isn't great solution, but is cheap ( in fact cardboard is free and framed QE I have anyway) and I don't have extra kit of boards for qrearing. More work consuming, but I am forced to reduce financial costs as much I can and same time not to lose quality.
On pic is hardboard, but I use lately just cardboard. These are older pics..