The design of the Flow Hive bottom board causes my hive entrance to be much shorter than a typical Langstroth entrance (by about 3/4cm), so my entrance reducer doesn’t fit. Has anyone else observed this? Or have a way to make an entrance reducer of the right size?
Any chance you can post a photo? If it just overhangs the side of the hive, you can just cut it down to size, but I am not sure if that is what you mean.
I have it moved sideways so you can see the size of the entrance. The length is correct for an 8-frame hive, but you can see with that extra wood piece in the entrance it isn’t tall enough to fit my entrance reducer. If you have the Flow bottom board, you will have noticed that it includes a gradual wedge so that your boxes are slightly tilted backwards (to allow for Flow harvest to work) so that your bottom board can stay flat/ not trap moisture in the hive. The wedge alone would make this entrance giant, so this extra piece is in place, it just looks like it is a little too big.
Looking for:
-specs to modify my entrance reducers or make new ones
-place to source a new one
The trick would be to take a piece of wood, cut it to the desired length & shape it so it fits firmly in the entrance. You don’t want it to be loose fitting, if the bees don’t like it, I’ve heard they will push it out.
If that Block is 25mm square on the end you need one about 15mm
I figured I could just shave it down to fit. What is the bee height that I need to maintain for the entrance spaces?
8mm …sorry now filling space
You could maintain the original height, no problem. Or reduce it down to say, 10 or 12 mil. It’s not all that critical. The bees will work with whatever you give them. If it’s too big, they’ll propolize it over, too small they’ll chew it out bigger. Try to avoid the latter. If it’s not too big, & it’s not too small (Goldilocks) they’ll do nothing.
