Remove entrance block during flow?

[Do224]

I’ve noticed some people seem to remove their entrance block completely. I presume this is to make it easier for the bees to get on with things during a strong flow...is this something I should be doing at the moment?

Or is it not worth doing and potentially opens the hive up to robbing from other bees and wasp attack?

 

[Curly green finger's]

I use to remove the entrance block but this time of year the wasps are starting to be about, I think it makes know difference to the colony.
I leave them in all year.

 

[Boston Bees]

I recently reduced mine to fairly narrow openings as the first wasps have been seen going in and out of them

 

[Curly green finger's]

I recently reduced mine to fairly narrow openings as the first wasps have been seen going in and out of them

Aye, even trying to get in to the tops of hives when inspecting I closed up after watching the wasp getting beaten to a pulp...( Balling)

Edit : all my nucs and mini nucs have reduced entrances know!

 

[Erichalfbee]

No entrance blocks for me. Wide open under floor entrance all year

 

[Do224]

No entrance blocks for me. Wide open under floor entrance all year

Bloomin heck, yet something else to consider and start researching...

 

[user 819]

UFE's here as well but do have the option to use a slider to close off to a two bee space entrance.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Bloomin heck, yet something else to consider and start researching...

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threa...-on-the-dartington-underfloor-entrance.46001/

 

[pete darbyshire]

Not seen many wasps at all round here this year.

 

[gmonag]

Just to complete the set..
I leave entrance blocks in all year

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I’ve noticed some people seem to remove their entrance block completely. I presume this is to make it easier for the bees to get on with things during a strong flow...is this something I should be doing at the moment?

Or is it not worth doing and potentially opens the hive up to robbing from other bees and wasp attack?

My original wooden hives were built with fixed reduced entrances. Removal wasn't an option. I've changed progressively to Abelo national poly with their entrance limiters which are effectively the same aperture as my wooden hives had. Wild colonies cope just fine with small entrances about the size of a hole a pigeons egg could pass through, sometimes less.
I suspect the yawning chasms favoured by some can be traced back to the usual historical suspects.

 

[user 20297]

I have Abelo which

I've changed progressively to Abelo national poly with their entrance limiters which are effectively the same aperture as my wooden hives had.

Do you use them with the removable slider fittted as well as the main reducer?

 

[The Poot]

I have Abelo which



Do you use them with the removable slider fittted as well as the main reducer?

I‘m using them this year without the slider until wasps become an issue, then I’ll add the slider.

 

[user 20297]

I‘m using them this year without the slider until wasps become an issue, then I’ll add the slider.

Thank-you. Same here, although I did put a reducer on one colony due to potential robbers last week. It's a pain that you have to almost remove the main reducer to add or remove the slider; it's a bit risky without the gear on.

 

[The Poot]

Thank-you. Same here, although I did put a reducer on one colony due to potential robbers last week. It's a pain that you have to almost remove the main reducer to add or remove the slider; it's a bit risky without the gear on.

Tell me about it - I was trying to remove a reducer at the weekend - with gear on, but it was at dusk......mistake.
I got bees down my wellies as they piled out at me. I suffered a few scary reactions and only got relief from three antihistamines and by using the 9v battery trick at the sting site. I was lucky that my thick welly socks prevented more stings as when I took the wellies off in the garage, several bees fell out

 

[gmonag]

.. only got relief from three antihistamines and by using the 9v battery trick at the sting site...

Pray elucidate.

 

[spiderplantman]

by using the 9v battery trick at the sting site

Pray elucidate.

Yes, please do. I had a scary reaction last year to 2 stings that gave me an all-over body rash and panicky feeling that doctors have given me epipens for and put me on allergy therapy for. Been stung since and not had it, but would love to know what the battery trick is. TIA

 

[The Poot]

It’s something our special forces are trained to do apparently, for insect and other stings. Wet the actual sting area and hold a 9v battery onto it with the terminals each side of the penetration site of the sting. Hold for two minutes or so. I have done this a few times and it seems to restrict the area of swelling, but creates a very small hard, almost pimple like thing where the stinger went in. That lasts longer than the swelling. Obviously remove the stinger asap before doing any of this!
I doubt this prevents adverse reactions of the anaphylactic / immune system type but does seem to help at the sting site. I have had almost no “burning” or itching from the ankle sting.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I've had 20 frame colonies work quite happily with a reduced entrance (some of my floors are made like that). The only time I move an entrance block is to close up the entrance.

 

[IndiBee]

Don't know how clear this will come out. But this is an image of a prototype floor for a nuc I have made (shot before mesh added - shot upside-down)
The bees enter one end of a channel and exit at the other.
Bees installed and worked out the route within a day. Wasps, however, can not get into the nuc before coming across a bee in the channel and so get repelled. So I will be using this method for all hive floors in future.