Has any one reduced the width of the hive entrant for the bees? And reason for doing it
Please.
Hi Christopher, all my hives have reduced entrances, typically only 5-6cm. They are also fully mesh or bluebees ventilated bottom boards. I do it to help with keeping out small hive beetles. Bees don’t seem to mind.
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All of my hives have an entrance of no more than 15 square cm. Thomas Seeley (famous bee researcher) studied colony hive entrance preferences, and found that to be their most favorite size, so that is why I use it. If the colony is weak, I reduce it more - less for them to defend from robbers and pests.
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I do the same as @Dawn_SD for the exact same reason. Generally make them 3/8” x 6” about 1cm x 15cm.
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All my hives have an entrance 1x10cm. Helps the guard bees do their job. In winter I halve that. The entrance is busybut not blocked.
Cheers
Rob.
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Thanks everyone. I thought so just needed the input to verify what l was going to do is correct.