Hi i live on the Sunshine Coast Queensland AUS
& was woundering if i need to put a entrance reducer on my hive for winter?
i got a 5 frame nuc about 4 weeks ago & they are going along well bringing in lots of pollen
& have drawn out the last three frames. but just unsure what to do with winter here
as it does not get very cold!
Hi Michael, I’m also on the Sunshine Coast. The best advice I could give is to reduce it to half & face the entrance away from the SW. The only other thing I’d recommend it to have the core flute in the top slot.
Hi Jeff
i have the hive facing North east already.
with the entrance reducer should i leave the opening in the center?
thank you
Centre or side makes no difference to the bees. Mine are generally sited to the most used area of the landing board before I restricted the opening. Generally, it hard to say how much you should reduce your entrance because our hives are all different. Just aim for a busy entrance, not crowded, just busy.
Cheers
Rob.
Yes, basically what Rob has said. It doesn’t really matter. To be truthful, I never reduce mine. I did the first year I kept bees, but haven’t bothered since. The bees will bridge propolis across the bottoms of the frames if they feel they need it. Plus they’ll fill any gaps. However, we don’t really have a winter like the bees are genetically programmed to endure.
Would you believe that last year I got called out to a swarm in the middle of July & I discovered that some of my hives were at the point of getting ready to swarm at the same time.
Basically just after the shortest day, where the days start to get longer & pollen starts coming in, that’s when it’s time to check on our hives to make sure they don’t swarm.