Made an entrance reducer

Rod,
I’m lucky enough to have a small Dewalt table saw. I set the height careful for the two sizes … Hive entrances can bee little bit different between hives so I make blanks a dap oversize n shave down to a tight fill as needed. Moisture make the wood change too.
Gerald.

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Great work, I love the idea, thinking about copying. Where in the US are you Bobby? Not getting my bees for a month, I’m jealous.

I’m in Georgia, almost in the mountains. The next town north claims the title, “First Mountain City.”

I picked up my Nucs this past Saturday and all seems well so far.

I modified the bottom board to fit a standard entrance reducer. Pulled out that fat board along the entrance, and replaced it with a thinner piece of trim. It was perfect thickness to allow for a regular entrance reducer.

Hey Adam,

Found some photos for you. Sorry about the parallax error in the second one… :blush:

Here is a Standard Langstroth entrance:


21 to 22 mm as you can see.

Now here is the Flow entrance:


More like 14 to 15 mm. Just a bit different… :smile:

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Thanks! This could make it a tad bit tricky to make an reducer since it is just over a half inch.

Does anyone know if the DOW blue board insulation will work for something like this or will the bees chew up the styrofoam? It is a higher density foam then standard styro.

You could make it from Styrofoam and cover it in Duct tape

Bruce,

Did you make a reducer for your Flow-hive also… If so … What’s the height n any idea what the bottom beveled slope is front to rear might be ? Sadly, I don’t have a Flow-Hive here so can measure n fit to make an entrance reducer yet. Had a could people ask but I’m flying blind even trying without some idea here. Thanks bro. Gerald

Dawn,

If the outside facing opening is 14 to 15mm and there’s a slight front to back/inside bottom beveled slope … If we cut a normal 3/8" bee space … There isn’t much wood left for strength ! I like the looks of Bob reducer ! I think I’ll stay with my Beethinking products. At least there approx. square 3/4" x 3/4". Much easier to deal with n much stronger.

Sorry … I’m just thinking on my feet. If I actually had a full Flow-hive set up I’d have any example to bounce off of for measuring n figuring. Ahhhh ! Enough for tonight. My brains dead. I don’t do well at mm to inch conversion. Never learned or needed too so at 70 years old my brain has issues dealing with metric if it makes perfect sense. :smile:. Now that I’ve burnt your ear off. I will say, take care n Nitie nite. Gerald

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Totally correct, except… My photo has some parallax error. I think the entrance slope is not so dramatic. From my shim experiment, I would estimate that the entrance is no more than 13mm and the rear of the entrance inside the hive is 12mm. Bees can get through a space 8-9mm, so if you have an entry in your reducer that is 2/3 of the unmodified entrance, it should work. Not necessarily strong, and maybe metal will be needed rather than wood. Or… Just block off some of the 12mm high entrance with wood strips, as another forumite suggested - doesn’t have to be complicated. :wink:

Hey Arizona,

I’ve gotten some measurement guesses from you n hopefully accurate rulings in metric from Dawn ( I did my best to go online n convert as I don’t work in metric at all )… This is a “proto” made of white oak for strength as the over 1" width entrance at 3/8 ( 7 to 8 mm ) in softer woods would be probably to fragile/weak to jerk in n out.

I cut the length about 1 mm long to make up for variations off slight different of hive width. Also I made slightly taller so I can add a slight front to rear bevel angle if needed. . This isn’t any Boeing 767 aircraft either so close as i can without having an actual full Flow-hive here. . . . . What do you think ? Should I make several more so I have a model n send one down to you ? Just send me a personal what you want to do or not do ! :blush::honeybee::wink:. Gerald

Beautiful job, Gerald, I’ll buy one from you. :smile: PM your address, and I will send you a check.

I love the challenge ! I enjoy working with wood as I have time.

. . . Any thoughts from the “Peanut Gallery” on this plus or minus ? Gerald

Yeah I would love to try one!

Hmmm, the length makes me think I need to re-measure. I am sure that the Flow hive is not that much narrower in the entrance. I will go out later when the rain stops.

Hmm, just realized, Gerald has a 10 frame Lang, and the Flows are 8 frame… Hopefully that accounts for the length difference. I will still go and measure for sure. Unfortunately I think I have fractured my foot, so I am trying not to walk around too much at the moment… :cry:

Dawn,

I am moving ahead here ! The proto-type is done n seems strong enough if I use hardwoods.

Was the length at 325 mm Good ? my width @ 20 mm is right on. I’ll use my proto-sample for future measurements if they check out by you n Adam. If all goes well n no emergencies with Vera I should get them in the Post/mail early this week ! Just crossing my fingers :wink:. . Here’s some hardwoods we use in making cutting boards . Now back to work !

Ta ta n cheerio !
Gerald

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I remeasured - it is actually 321mm or in inches, 12 5/8" (or 12.625 inches). However, I have sandpaper and a micro-grinder for my dremel, so a little bit of fitting would not be a big deal. I am paying you for this Gerald, be sure of that - you deserve it! :smile:

Dawn

And once Dawn has guinea pigged up and it works you are making them available? Right? Because I want one too. I could make my own, but I am too lazy ; -)

Dawn,

No sweat ! No Problem, không sao ! I’ll adjust. Easier to cut short than try to glue extra on :yum::+1:. Here’s my first almost finished ash entrance reducers. Once I got the saw n jigs tooled up it was not bad. Just need to get you to TEST RUN. :sunglasses::+1:. Have a great Friday evening. I’ll be heading to teach ESL class soon. Take care.
Gerald

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Love your colours in cutting boards. You could use the colour system for your frames.

Your white oak has the grain paten of our Sheoak (Allocasuarina fraseriana) with our sheoak being light brown to fawn