Bees eating through classic flow hive gable roof

Beekeeping - Basics
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Has anyone had experience with bees eating through the gable roof. I just had to order an internal lid because it was suffering rot in the corner and bees were able to exit via the back of the hive. Now I have found they are eating their way through the actual peak of the roof! Any suggestions?

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Bees frequently chew through soft wood, especially if they can see a slither of light. Most times they fill the gap with propolis, while other times they’ll chew through it, as in your case.

The best thing to do is make sure that the bees can’t see any slither of light between the roof panels, etc.

My bees have chewed some extra entrances where my brood boxes sit on the slatted racks that I made using hoop pine (araucaria). Obviously they chewed through some soft grain of the wood.

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Your bees might also be wanting an upper entrance/exit and like Jeff said, they found an easy spot to make one. Top entrances are helpful to busy colonies because they ease traffic at the main openings, they’re a shortcut to the super, and they aid the bees’ efforts at climate control inside the hive.

Some inner covers have a notch the you can put facing down when you put the cover on the top box. Some beeks drill a hole in the front face of the top box, or in the front of the Flow roof/lid.

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You don’t want a hole in the roof when it rains, so I would suggest a couple of things.

  1. Take the roof apart and put some roofing flashing underneath the shingles. You can get wide aluminium flashing that should do the job nicely. put the screws back in through the sheet, using some caulking/mastic to seal the screw holes. Your roof should now be weatherproof, although the wood may take water damage (repaint and seal the gaps in it to prevent that). Or more simply:
  2. Seal the hole with caulking, mastic or Bondo and repaint the outside to mask the bees’ footprint pheromones (yes, there is such a thing). They should leave it alone if you do that.

:wink:

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Had you painted the roof slats before assembly, or did you assemble first, paint later? I don’t know if FlowHive gives any guidance in this regard. Not being critical, just asking.