That doesn’t make sense to me.
The bees put the honey over the brood. That’s what makes sense to them. If you read what I wrote about top entrances you will see what I think are the advantages. And some quotes from others on the topic. The only time I rearrange things with brood over honey is when I’m queen rearing and I don’t want to have to move all the honey to get to the brood.
Today I watched a video from @FrederickDunn. The hive consisted of 4 supers. The bees were happily working a top and bottom entrance. I only use, as you have probably read a 1 brood / 1 honey super configuration. With that configuration, my bees frefer a bottom entrance, into the brood. It appears that with a 4 super hive, bees are happy to use a top entrance, as well as a bottom entrance. From memory, that hive of Fred’s had no QX.
I have been following this thread and I’m suspecting that is the US it seems normal to stack multiples of supers and a top entrance might have benefits in that sort of set up.
But the way re run hives here is as you say, with a single super and stacking supers the way we manage our hives there is no reason to do that.
A top entrance I can see as a good idea in a cold climate that gets snow but heck, we seem to be missing out completely on rain.
@Michael_Bush For Michael, Sydney is 700 miles away and in another state but it made a lead story on the news here that it rained in Sydney, not in the weather report, but the lead story on the news. Gives you some idea that we are desperate for rain. Winter is a long sleeve shirt and jeans. Snow here doesn’t happen, our climate is much like southern Florida - minus the tornadoes.
Cheers
I run all eight frame boxes (with nine frames in them) and they are all mediums (6 5/8” deep). A typical production hive in a flow six to eight boxes minimum. In a bumper crop year it could be ten or twelve boxes or more.
There is a big difference here, I run 8 frame Langstroth single full depth brood boxes and a single full depth super. My hives are only a few miles away so of a morning I collect a load of capped honey and replace with stickies then it is home to extract overnight the back the next morning to the hives with another load of stickies. This way there is no need for stacking of supers.
Jeff is about 12 miles away from me but even so we do have a small climate difference and he runs his bee keeping the same way. He is still extracting some honey while I am feeding about half of my hives. There is heaps of pollen and flowering but very little nectar, my last rain was in March when I got about 3/4 of an inch. We are really in a drought and a dearth.
Cheers
Hi Jeff, I took a moment to read this thread for some context regarding the gist of the discussion.
Many may not know that I study honeybees and observe them through all for seasons while providing a wide array of hive equipment and options in order to discern what they prefer through their own behavior and modifications by chewing the wood, adding propolis, or waxing up various spaces.
There are many cold-weather studies performed in North America regarding upper entrance options and how the bees make use of that for foraging, as well as venting off throughout the year. You are correct in that I don’t use Queen excluders - and if someone is using Queen Excluders, then there are more reasons not to offer the upper entrance (though you may still try screened venting).
If your hive swarms and produces replacement queen cells, with a queen excluder in place, a virgin queen may return from her mating flight(s) and attempt to return through that upper entrance thus trapping her above the brood frames.
Some cold weather beekeepers provide special boxes on top through winter that are vented, thinking that if the bees won’t want the vents, then they will simply plug them up. The problem with that expectation is that by the time cold sets in, the bees are not capable of foraging for propolis and temps are too cold for them to seal things with ease.
My northern United States method is to set up the Flow Hive with the bottom board, using rolled screens as entrance reducers, place the 8 or 10 frame brood box (continuing observations with all flow-configurations) - then the inner cover and Flow-Gabled Roof - after the bees have made use of at least 80% of the brood box, I add a medium super above that deep box. When and if the bees fill most of those frames with honey which established a honey bridge, then I place the Flow-Super on that box for them to begin working it and I no longer provide any upper entrance, nor do I enhance upper venting. The Queen is very unlikely, though it remains “possible” to venture up into the flow-super abov the honey-filled super, for egg laying. If in doubt, use the Queen Excluder.
The medium honey super is for the bees to winter over. I used to leave 70-100 lbs of honey for the bees, but found they actually only utilized half that so a medium super is fine when it’s full of capped honey.
How I arrived at no more venting or upper entrances? This year (2019) I put out 10 colonies with top feeder shims that are vented with optional upper entrances (metal wheel offering venting or access). What did the bees do with that? Well, by mid-summer, they closed up every single vent with propolis and demonstrated a preference for a single lower entrance/vent. The FlowHives all have screened, or aluminum vented bottom boards which provide more than enough air flow for the bees as they clearly have shown a preference for. In the past, like many, I added the vent or modified the cover as the cold winter months set in and assumed they wanted that without examining the fact that they really couldn’t do anything about it by then.
We are also observing and studying feral colonies in my State, interested in their survivor traits and of course, selection of cavity size, exposure, location and yes - access point size, location, and exposure. None of the feral colonies have upper vents and they place all of their honey stores in the top 50-60% of the comb with brood occupying the mid to lower levels nearest the opening. Average openings are actually very small, even when occupied by fairly large colonies. The interior is covered in what’s now referred to as the propolis envelope which has its own antibacterial properties and is freshened during the warmer months by the bees.
This is how I arrived at my current cold-weather setup - bottom board, screened entrance reducers to prevent robbing while allowing maximum venting, deep brood box, honey super, then the Flow-Super which is being removed for wintering now. This leaves the deep and medium to winter through and that’s the same for 8 or 10 frame setups. One of my strongest survivor colonies came through our harsh winter last year in a single deep brood box with no super on. Flow-Hive 2.
I hope that explains my thinking and how I arrived at what we’re doing this year. I wish you all the very best with your bees and I think you’ll find that many configurations still “work” but your bees will eventually demonstrated what they prefer for their own survivability in any given climate.
Hi Fred, while I didn’t read your whole message, I will later. You confirmed something I said on another thread. I guessed that there comes a point when bees can no longer collect propolis. It was in relation to propping lids open with matches during harsh winters.
PS Fred, I read a bit more of your message. The wild hives in trees don’t have any vented screens to allow ventilation. You mentioned a small entrance for the size of the colonies. That is all that’s needed. The 70-100 lbs of honey you leave the bees could be greatly reduced if the hive was completely insulated, which would mimic a feral colony in a tree.
Very well put Fred in explaining your bee keeping. Jeff and I are in a sub-tropical climate and a night of +57F is very rare for us so we have different climatic conditions to consider in our bee keeping.
An interesting read and thanks.
Cheers
I completely understand. Which is why no single answer is necessarily the correct one for all. Thanks Peter!
Hi Pete, my climate is different to yours. 57F = slightly under 14C. We get lots of minimums of that & under. Through the winter, lots of single digit minimums, which accounts for how much fire wood we burnt this year to keep warm.
cheers
I guess that my hives are only a couple of K’s from the ocean and are at sea level makes a difference. I only resorted to turning on my heater a couple of times this year.
We are discussing about the hot and humid air rising inside a bee hive, I thought that was beyond dispute that in fact in a bee hive the hot and humid air does go up in the hive, maybe you are right, but maybe you are wrong.
An excellent attempt to change the subject from the hot and humid air rising in a bee hive to you wanting to point out atmospheric conditions which of course is a totally different topic and with different conditions. Maybe you honed in on part of my comment without knowing what the subject is about. 
Moist air rises. Moist air is lighter than dry air. It’s not just the heat, it’s the moisture.
I totally agree Michael, and so it follows that hot humid air rises in a bee hive, it is so basic but someone on this forum ignores facts.
Yes, I was agreeing with you. Just pointint out that it’s not just the heat, it’s also the moisture that causes it to rise.
Hi guys, way late on this response, but I thought I’d add some food for thought regarding the hot and humid conditions in the upper parts of the hive interior.
Some students are observing the foragers that move up into the top portions of the hive interior cavity to take advantage of those hot/humid conditions. They “may” even be dealing with varroa on some level by moving into that top section which can reach temps that “might” be killing the varroa on the bees.
I don’t know who would challenge that hot air rises along with humidity as compared with the well vented and drier brood which will be nearer to the opening… wherever the opening is.
Obiously this isn’t a winter study, but I thought I’d drop that on you for consideration.
Nothing published, nothing concluded, but I found it to be an interesting subject.