Pollen drop through floor

[Jambo]

Hello

I have two identical National hives from Thorne with mesh floors. Strong colonies in both, both started from nucs late April, one slightly ahead of the other but not much in it - both have all 9-10 frames packed with brood currently.

One hive consistently has a lot of pollen underneath it, dropped through the floor. The other has hardly any.

I have read that this may be due to rough edges around the door or similar but does anyone have any more details or experience of what causes it? To complicate things, while most of it is near the front of the hive there is plenty towards the back too.

Anything I can do? Obviously with the amount of brood they are rearing they are managing to get plenty in and are hardly starving, but still I'd like to improve it for them if I can.

Thanks

 

[Millet]

Hello

I have two identical National hives from Thorne with mesh floors. Strong colonies in both, both started from nucs late April, one slightly ahead of the other but not much in it - both have all 9-10 frames packed with brood currently.

One hive consistently has a lot of pollen underneath it, dropped through the floor. The other has hardly any.

I have read that this may be due to rough edges around the door or similar but does anyone have any more details or experience of what causes it? To complicate things, while most of it is near the front of the hive there is plenty towards the back too.

Anything I can do? Obviously with the amount of brood they are rearing they are managing to get plenty in and are hardly starving, but still I'd like to improve it for them if I can.

Thanks

It is normal do not worry..

 

[Jambo]

I appreciate the reply, but even with my small sample size of two hives I can see that's not really the case...!

 

[drex]

Do you have anything in or over the entrance?
are you leaving your varroa inspection boards in all the time?
Pollen traps have lots of projections in them to comb pollen off. A few rough edges round your entrance is not going to make much difference. I would not worry.

 

[Jambo]

Drex, I should have said - I have the entrance blocks in place, so the entrance is pretty small. Now that the hives are strong I thought about removing these - but Clive de Bruyn's book says his hives all have them in year round, so I didn't.

And both my hives have the same entrances.

Nope the boards are out most of the time. I have the hives on paving slabs though so can see the pollen easily.

Thanks.

 

[enrico]

You can remove the entrances if robbing or wasps are no problem but as stated you are concerned over nothing. They over collect pollen anyway.
E

 

[Millet]

Drex, I should have said - I have the entrance blocks in place, so the entrance is pretty small. Now that the hives are strong I thought about removing these - but Clive de Bruyn's book says his hives all have them in year round, so I didn't.

And both my hives have the same entrances.

Nope the boards are out most of the time. I have the hives on paving slabs though so can see the pollen easily.

Thanks.

When the bees enter the hive they obviously have to squeeze through hundreds of other bees when walking up the comb which could easily dislodge pollen, also every bee is not going to hit the target when putting there pollen load into cells, i have entrance blocks that are more than big enough to let drones in and out so the workers are restricted in no way, every year i get a good amount of dropped pollen and the bees do just fine.

 

[Jambo]

Thanks again for the responses. I'm not concerned as such, more than anything else I am interested in the potential causes, I appreciate my original post may suggest otherwise.

 

[wightbees]

Until you fix the problems, save the pollen for early spring, just a idea