I worked with mice for over 30 years. As a result, I have great respect for their ingenuity. 
Getting things setup here (no bees until mid-late May) so thinking over and reading on stuff. I noticed between posts on here and then some reason on your site that using a top entrance with a queen excluder may cause issues with drones getting out. I’ve also read several reports of queens putting larva in Flow Frames so I do want to use an excluder (except when overwinter) when I have the Flor Frame Super on.
Will it be an issue for drones with the plastic excluder that ships with the Flow Hive kit? If so should I just put a shim between the top of the Brood boxes and the Flow Hive super to make the entrance near the top vs. at the top? Or should I just stick with modifying my Inner…
Thoughts from anyone?
P.S. I’m about to start being able to make any of these changes.
Drones won’t get through any excluder. If you want a top entrance keep the bottom one as well.
Drones getting out is an issue with any excluder. They cannot get through them. You only need one 3/8" hole below the excluder to let them out. That could be a notch in a wood bound excluder, or a 3/8" hole drilled in the block you use to block the bottom entrance. They just need an exit somewhere that is at least that big. Drones getting out are an issue with bottom entrances as well if you suddenly add an excluder between the boxes where there was not one before, then there needs to be an upper entrance to let the drones out of the upper boxes.
Ok I think I may go for the 3/8" hole in the bottom block. I do wish they made the metal mouse guard that fit the entrance size for the BB of the Flow Hive, but I’ll just round up some wood (I might have some very old scrap red wood timbers around the place) and cut it to fit with a 3/8" put in it for the drones.
You can’t have an excluder between your queen and the entrance. How will she get out to swarm? How will the drones get out? Big mess if you restrict the drones.
Cheers
Rob.
Sure you can, top and bottom entrance although I don’t use excluders. I run unlimited brood nests for the most part and let the bees be bees.
Makes sense now.
Cheers
Rob.
A post was split to a new topic: Bee Hive Stands
love the photo can you forward it to us at info@beesmartdesigns.com