I couldn’t find the item on honeybeehives.com.au but I did find it on ecrotec.com.au for $11.72. I imagine the price reflects the R&D costs to develop something like this that actually works (If it does indeed). It is called a “guardian bee hive entrance”. After reading this I suspect I should install this on the hive entrance now tather than when I add the honey super. The following info was on the website:
Design
The design of the Guardian is based on the small hive beetles tendency to follow along 90 degree edges. Since they do not expose their soft underside to the bee, they stay close to the edges looking for small cracks and crevices to gain access to the hive. By masking the entrance, the beetles are forced to stay along the edges with the help from bee pressure.
Guardian has been created to aid honey bees in protecting their colonies by masking the bee hive entrance and reducing the number of beetles that would normally be allowed to enter the hive.
That is an interesting thought. The hive I looked at on the wkend certainly didn’t have much burr comb. I would have put that down to the lack of population (particularly worker) and therefore not using every bit of available space. However maybe your theory might have something to do with it??
I believe the best defence against toads and mice is having the hive up high enough (at least 40cm for toads).
I would vote against the Chux in the hive as it could harm or get in the way for the bees. Other things to add to your considerations may include:
keeping your hive in a dry location. SHB love dark and damp spots
reduce the hive entrance, particularly in the early establishment days. This could support the new colony for multiple reasons
the bees seem to naturally adopt a beetle management system that is to herd them into a corner or through the mesh bottom tray, so maintaining the oil should suffice in my opinion.
But overall, I agree that keeping a strong and populous colony is best strategy (I also reside in Northern NSW).
I just opened my hive to inspect and again the bees have torn the chux up and a dozen or so bees were stuck again. There was about 30 SHB stuck in the chux but far more were drowned in the oil.
Based on the opinions here, the fact that blue chux is not natural and that I feel bad for the poor bees that were trapped, I have not replaced the chux.
I made the SHB trap of sugar, yeast, honey and water that Bianca linked to above. I doubled the recipe and put it in a 3L milk bottle with a fly trap spout attached (purchased a 4 pack of these from Bunnings a while ago). I haven’t opened and strained it yet but I can see there are lots of beetles drowned inside. I also squashed a few that were hanging around the trap. I haven’t spotted any beetles hanging around the hive. I have the trap hanging about 1m above ground level and about 7m away from my hive.
I installed the beetle excluder today. I bolted it to an entrance reducer that is designed to keep mice and toads out of the hive and then I screwed the reducer to the hive entrance. The bees figured out how to get in right away.
Yeh it’s crazy! Our conditions have been relatively light on the north coast compared to further south though - those poor buggers with lost houses. River crossings have swelled and my house is flooded in at the moment and we’re hours away from running out of milk, but that’s probably as bad as it will get here. I’m thinking I may need to feed any vulnerable colonies though, the rain’s been relentless.
I’m about to attach my guardian hive reducers to my flow hive brood box. The hurdle I was concerned with was matching the opening of the guardian with the opening of the brood box in line with or at the entrance point of the metal screen.
I created a frame for the guardian and plan to attach that to the outside of the brood box. So the guardian is actually inclosed with in the attached frame around the top and sides.
Your solution I just found after making my set up.
I think the guardian entrance reducer and the mill bottle SHB trap are working well together. There are far fewer beetles. I couldn’t spot a single beetle in the hive on the last two inspections although there are some in the oil in the bottom tray. No sign of beetle larvae or slime.
I did almost lose my colony to starvation due to weeks of rain and me not wanting to feed the bees. I think two thirds of my bees dies in the hive and the others couldn’t get them out due to the guardian entrance reducer.
I’m now feeding them sugar water and removed over a kilo of dead bees. I took the guardian off for a few days until no more dead bees were seen, it’s back on now. Lesson learnt.
