Hello all, today I will get my very first colony from a bee keeper I klnow. He will give me an established colony with 5 frames (hopefully my other brood box will arrive in time!). My question is, should I use an entrance reducer and what typw do you use? Any pictures to see the installation?
Thank you very much for your time!
Hi @johnnix,
Probably this is just a terminology, but 5 frames usually called a starter or nucleus colony (nuc).
Entrance reducer is important tool that can be used in many situations. Reduce entrance in cold weather, robbing etc. For a small colony a small entrance is rather necessary because it requires much less guard bees to protect colony from being robbed by other colonies. About 5 cm opening will be enough for a beginning.
The type I use at the moment is shown on the picture below:
There are several types of reducers available on the market and any particular style is rather personal choice and matter of convenience. They all work. A simple timber plank closing part of entrance works very well too. The simplest entrance reducer I’ve ever used was made of handful of dirt. I did not have anything else around but had to stop robbing. I plugged entrance with dirt and used a pencil to make a couple of holes in it. Worked quite well too 
Hello, thank you so much for your valuable information! I didnt use the term nuc as the colony arrived on its original brrod box
I will go ahead and make my research and try to find a good looking reducer for m Flow hive!!!
Regards
John
Mine quite literally shoved it out of their way, I got the inexpensive wood stick reducer and planed it to match the face of the hive and slope of the landing board. I set it on the larger opening (about 50 mm) and they left it that way for a week, then over the course of a few days they shoved it out enough to let them through anywhere along the entrance, They liked it that way so I left it that way.
I also used a wooden reducer and did exactly the same thing
