Swiss Entrance at front of hive

Modifications & Building Bee Hives
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A few people have asked me at this link about the metal structure at the front of my Italian hive.

http://forum.honeyflow.com/t/went-to-collect-two-nucs-beekeeper-kindly-gifted-me-two-full-beehives-more-than-i-bargained-for-question-is-how-to-integrate-with-honeyflow/11407?u=johnt

From scanning through my Dad’s books, it is a ‘Swiss entrance’ used to control ventilation. I would also imagine that it is used for prevention of access to the hive by lizards, field mice and other small creatures. They are available on Italian bee keeping sites.

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What I was wondering about was those ‘latches’ on the two side walls of the porch at the very front?

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Looks like a mouseguard to me. How much difference in ventilation would there be moving the plates apart? Absolutely none if you have a mesh floor and little with a solid floor. Definitely a mouse guard
Mind you it’s 1956 so would be a solid floor