Horsley board confusion

[mattyo]

Hi i am after a bit of help

Tried a horsley board last year with mixed results but would like to give it a go again this year.

One problem is conflicting information
on the bee craft webpage they say to start with entrance open but the barnsley beekeepers and dave cushman sites they say to start with it closed.

Anyone use them successfully do you start open or closed

 

[k9rml]

Hi I started using the board this year for swarm control so far so good, the first two hives I tried both with queen cells started I put queen in new brood box then supers then board the brood box with cells in and closed the entrance which opens the queen excluder and access to supers checked them four days later and they had pulled the cells down. so the other hives I went through the same process but opened the hatch fully closing off the queen excluder. went back in four days later and there were sealed cells went back in ten days from putting the board on and knocked down all cells except for one sealed. Checked the first one yesterday and new queen laying so turned board around to face the same way as entrance to bottom box, hope this helps

 

[Hebeegeebee]

If you are essentially demareeing with a brood box above the supers, keep it closed to start with so you ensure plenty of nurse bees come up to feed the queencells. Once sealed (4 or 5 days) you can open it. Flyers return downstairs.