Have any of you experimented with converting the Flow Hive to a top entrance, rather than the bottom entrance it comes with?
I’m curious about strategies for this.
Mine all have top entrances. Even the flow hives…
http://www.bushfarms.com/beestopentrance.htm
Just use them from the start. If they are not using one, I would reduce the bottom entrance to about one bee wide and put the top entrance on. After a few days, if you aren’t using an excluder you can block the bottom entrance. If you ARE, then leave it reduced to about one bee wide so the drones can get out.
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How do the bees clear the dead ones off the floor?
They climb Mount Everest like a sherpa weighed down, or they wait for the beekeeper… 
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Thanks everyone. I saw you at the Shenandoah Beekeeper’s talk on Saturday, Michael - really, really enjoyed it. (This is Jennifer - the girl with the Firefly jacket. ;))
I know you’d recommended putting shims on the lid - I was just wondering if that would work for the full Flow Hive setup - I ordered their full hive set to get started.
So, when converting the Classic Flow Hive (http://www.honeyflow.com/about-flow/flow-hive/p/65) to a top entrance hive, where would be best to make the modification? On the inner cover? I don’t think the hive lid would work because of access to the honey slots. Just trying to puzzle this out, given the Flow Hive’s out-of-the-box design.
You could shape your existing inner cover, or buy this one if you don’t want to modify the Flow version:
Dawn
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Yes, when there is a really good flow the hives sound like air-con units
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Hi Jape, I’m jealous of your terrific honey flows. I’m a fan of bottom entrances. Maybe that’s because it’s done that way in Oz.
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I plan to modify my Flow Inner (waiting for my extra Mediums to get her this week - then I’m finishing everything, making mods, and coating with Tung Oil) with a 2in wide opening like @Michael_Bush suggested (his side + another topic on the forums), but upon measuring ether side of the Inner I notice the wooden frame around the Inner is only 5/16" thick and I remember the 3/8" rules + that link you have from Brushy calls out 3/8" plywood.
Thoughts anyone?
Avoiding the mice we have all around our area. My yard cats and poison can’t even keep up with them.
Well, if you have enough other stuff that you need to buy to get the free shipping, I would get the Brushy one. But I have never used a deliberate top entrance (bees have sometimes found a way, but it wasn’t designed by humans!), so I can’t tell you from direct experience.
Please keep us updated, I would love to know what you do and how it goes.
I will dawn. I’d be curious to see what @Michael_Bush thinks since he does use them.
I might have enough for free shipping (depending on what I do about the beesuit)
I just ordered their ventilated bee suit. I am already getting hot in my non-ventilated one, and we are only in early Spring!
Hi Logan, I have the same school of thought as Jape. We have more issues with rats than mice. Rats are fantastic climbers. If mice can climb as good as rats, I would have thought they’d get into a top entrance just as easy as a bottom entrance. Maybe the bottom entrance is closer to where they walk around. I think I’d still use a bottom entrance with a mouse guard.
Have you tried a trap that catches them live? Like a wire funnel pointing downwards. You can buy them on line.
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