First year beekeeper here!
I’m just curious, because the entrance to the flow hive 2 looks pretty narrow with the metal bottom screen in place. Is it possible for a new queen (if the time comes that the hive decides to produce a new queen) to fit out of the entrance for a mating flight?
Thanks,
Troy M
Welcome to the forum Troy, lots of reading a nice folks happy to pass on good advice and tips.
With the entrance of the of a Flow Hive2 as it is made there is no restriction at all to the queen or a drone which is a bigger bee in its width.
Most bee keepers restrict the entrance further for a few reasons, to make a smaller entrance to make it more defendable against attack or reduce the cold air flow onto the brood.
This is what I use. The metal entrance reducer is called a ‘mouse guard’. Here I use them as a ‘Cane Toad guard’. It can be removed and fitted upside down to lock all the bees inside but still gives good ventilation if you want to move the hive.
Each entry is 1/4" (6.5mm) wide and 3/8"(10mm) height, that is plenty of room for a queen to go through for her mating flight or when swarming. Drones are even wider than a queen and they can walk thru as well.
Cheers
Peter48,
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my question.
Your hive in the picture is clearly not a Flow Hive2, but that’s a nice Toad guard you have there!
Thank you,
Troy M
No, that isn’t a Flow Hive, but the same advice still applies. The photo was just to explain the type of entrance reducer which I also have fitted to my Flow Hives.
Cheers
Hi #Peter48, where can one purchase the mouse trap that you have shown here?
He bought it on eBay. 
@Peter48, sorry for not replying sooner. Thank you for the info, I put the wrong symbol (#) instead of a(@) in my question to you, I think that I could end up with mice problems, thankfully no cane toads:rofl:
Fingers crossed, I’ll be picking up a nuc on Tuesday, was suppose to have been yesterday, but the seller has to make an urgent trip up the coast:cry:
, so I have to wait just a little longer for my tribe to arrive. I will keep an eye open for the opening reducer. Last Sunday I attended the local amateur beekeepers club, got a baptism of fire being allowed to see a flow hive being attended too, the trouble was, that because ot the Covid-19 situation the hive had not had any inspections for 8 months, even this (very) amateur beekeeper could see that the hive was in a right royal mess. It was full to the brim with comb and bees, but amazingly, that a swarm had obviously not occurred this spring. The saddest thing of all, it also didn’t have a flow hive box fitted either (it does now), so it was a real task getting it sorted out. The club meets once a month, on the second Sunday, I look forward to the next meeting to set how the flow hive bees have copped with the shakeup they had.
