What size hole can drones get through ?

[Briar]

I leave my hives with a super over winter, and don't like to disturb them too much too early in the year (lost a queen and so then a whole colony soon after an early inspection once), meaning that I very often end up with drones and drone brood above the QE when I replace it.
I try and let/encourage as many out as possible when inspecting, but always end up with dead drones trapped trying to get out through the QE.
I'm wondering if an escape cone on the roof, WBC style, or in the side of the super which has the brood in it would let them out and then force them to return to the hive through the main entrance below the QE.

Do people think this is likely to work, and if so then I'd need to cut the tip off the cone escape to make the hole bigger, and am not sure how big a diameter hole drones would need to get out. can anyone tell me ?
Thanks

 

[Murox]

A queen excluder is not compulsory.
Drones pass through the 8/9mm entrance I use on most of my hives.

 

[Wilco]

I leave my hives with a super over winter, and don't like to disturb them too much too early in the year (lost a queen and so then a whole colony soon after an early inspection once), meaning that I very often end up with drones and drone brood above the QE when I replace it.
I try and let/encourage as many out as possible when inspecting, but always end up with dead drones trapped trying to get out through the QE.
I'm wondering if an escape cone on the roof, WBC style, or in the side of the super which has the brood in it would let them out and then force them to return to the hive through the main entrance below the QE.

Do people think this is likely to work, and if so then I'd need to cut the tip off the cone escape to make the hole bigger, and am not sure how big a diameter hole drones would need to get out. can anyone tell me ?
Thanks

You'd need to remove an escape from your cover/crown board too.

 

[Wilco]

A queen excluder is not compulsory.
Drones pass through the 8/9mm entrance I use on most of my hives.

8-9mm is bee space. QE is 4.something mm spacing.

 

[Boston Bees]

I leave my hives with a super over winter, and don't like to disturb them too much too early in the year (lost a queen and so then a whole colony soon after an early inspection once), meaning that I very often end up with drones and drone brood above the QE when I replace it.
I try and let/encourage as many out as possible when inspecting, but always end up with dead drones trapped trying to get out through the QE.
I'm wondering if an escape cone on the roof, WBC style, or in the side of the super which has the brood in it would let them out and then force them to return to the hive through the main entrance below the QE.

Do people think this is likely to work, and if so then I'd need to cut the tip off the cone escape to make the hole bigger, and am not sure how big a diameter hole drones would need to get out. can anyone tell me ?
Thanks

I just drilled a hole in the super, with no cone, and then filled it in after all the drones had emerged. Didn't seem to cause any confusion of note. But a cone would have been belt-and-braces I guess. Drones are so dumb that I wonder if they would have worked a cone out .....

 

[Briar]

I just drilled a hole in the super, with no cone, and then filled it in after all the drones had emerged. Didn't seem to cause any confusion of note. But a cone would have been belt-and-braces I guess. Drones are so dumb that I wonder if they would have worked a cone out .....

Thanks, was that an 8 to 9 mm hole ? I'll try an 8 as my drill bit set goes 6,8,10.
I thought I might need the cone to stop them returning to the super as that was the way they'd left the hive.

 

[Briar]

You'd need to remove an escape from your cover/crown board too.

I only put escapes in boards when I'm clearing, so there'd just be the big oval holes when it's being a cover board.

 

[Nige.Coll]

6mm I think. Something like that.

edit
Can't find anything specific about the size of hole drones fit through atm but 6.2 to 6.4 is the cell size. Mouseguards are 9.5mm holes.

 

[Boston Bees]

Thanks, was that an 8 to 9 mm hole ? I'll try an 8 as my drill bit set goes 6,8,10.
I thought I might need the cone to stop them returning to the super as that was the way they'd left the hive.

I drilled 13mm holes into the thick-walled poly supers in question - any narrower than this and it felt too dark and forbidding a tunnel to tempt a drone through.

A thin wooden box would be OK with a narrower hole though.

 

[Boston Bees]

I only put escapes in boards when I'm clearing, so there'd just be the big oval holes when it's being a cover board.

You should, IMHO, close them completely with something (a thin sheet of wood, or correx, or something) when they are not being used as clearers. The holes aren't meant to be left open.