Hive entrances. In or out

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idg

House Bee
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
307
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1
Location
Midlands
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
7
Hi, when should I consider taking the hive entrance out? It seems very congested on sunnier/ warmer days. What do others do?
 
Mine are still in, I honestly don't think it makes that much difference! I take them out when it gets really warm and not just pleasantly warm! It used to matter before mesh floors!
E
 
The nights are still cold. Mine are in. They stayed in all last year. there were very few nights when i slept with the windows open.
 
The only reason for taking them out was for ventilation with a solid floor.

With a mesh floor I make my entrances 6mm x 100mm and they are never bigger.

May reduce them in the autumn.

Bees can happily get in and out of a small opening no matter how big the colony.
 
Hi, when should I consider taking the hive entrance out? It seems very congested on sunnier/ warmer days. What do others do?

The entrance block/reducers don't give a standard size 'reduced' entrance. So, what works for some reducers (and bees) won't work for all.

A small and orderly queue at the entrance isn't a bad thing.
When it gets to be a seething scrum, the opening is possibly too small. This usually happens when the bees are exploiting a large nectar 'flow' - such as from OSR at the moment.



In late summer and autumn, when wasps (and potentially bees for other hives) are intent on robbing, a really small entrance becomes necessary.
A small colony should always have a small entrance.

A personal opinion of mine (not in the books) is that giving the bees an overlarge entrance to defend makes them over-defensive, attacking anyone that moves anywhere near their hive. Smaller entrance, fewer guard bees, entrance-way full of bees, much less trouble for and thus from the bees.



Entrance blocks are quite easily made from cheap B&Q (for example) stripwood.
So, you can make a few with different-sized openings at very little cost.


Last point - a low entrance, no more than 6 or 7mm tall, should perform perfectly well as a mouseguard, without needing a metal grid over it.
 
Mine are all a beespace high and the width of the hive permanently unless closed down in the wasp season.
Yesterday in the heat of mid day I surprised a field mouse snacking on the under floor detritus.
 
Mine had an entrance one bee high by 4" across. They were queuing up the landing board, so they now have the full entrance.
 
Mine are in all year because of a few wasp's nests in the vicinity, It doesn't seem to affect their performance or health
 
All my floors are home made with omf and 4" x beespace entrance.

They seem to work......
 
a little off topic, but I saw two queen wasps lurking around today! earliest I've ever seen! (other than dormant in my attic in November!)
 
Entrance blocks only used during Autumn for wasps or robbing activities. All other times full width entrance.
 
Mine are all beespace and a bit high, all stay reduced to about 10cm wide all year round. In nature they choose a cavity with an entrance of around 2.5cm diameter.

a low entrance, no more than 6 or 7mm tall, should perform perfectly well as a mouseguard, without needing a metal grid over it.
They might keep out the mice, but won't deter a kamikaze shrew! ;)
 
I run mine similar to Erichalfbee.

Two queen wasps are not only off-topic but also irrelevant. Mice are irrelevant excepting the very weakest colonies by now.

Think. Why do you have them so constricted? That might answer your own post. Tell us why they are currently restricted; tell us if you have an OMF. Think about natural nests. Think why and when a small, restricted entrance might be good for the colony. Read up on preventing wasp attacks. Read up on mouse guards and look in the catalogues at the size of some of them. Read up on the 'ideal'bait hive confiuration. Just a few examples from which you might form your own opinion and actually understand the colony requirements on this subject.
 

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