From: "deelusbybeekeeper" <deelusbybeekeeper@excelonline.com>
Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2001 08:06:27 -0700
To: <BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: opening size

Hi to all on Biological Beekeeping

> Here is a question for you. Since I have open mesh floors, I have
> kept my
> hive openings at 3"x 3/4"...Do you know of any data that suggest that
> smaller hive openings lead to less (significant) honey crop?

Reply:

I myself don't think so!. Many times you can walk through a bee yard and see bees working out the small hole in the side corner or back of a hive between two supers and not using the entrance in the front. Yet the hive is found to be strong and prosperous.

The matter here is 3 x 3/4 which is too small, but not for the reason given
for a front opening. 3/8 openings are excellent for keeping critters out and
allowing bees ample space to go into and out of a colony (across the whole
width of the colony). The size also works the same as 3/4 inch high or 1
inch high openings. Why, you might think?

Because like other things that fly (airplanes for instance), it is the width
and not the height for the landing here concerning the hive. The bees have
to have room for landing and wing space, and you don't see them flying on
top on one another (bees can crash landing too, by the way, and bump into one another), so the little extra height only lets in predators. Also for us on
the desert it lets in extra heat. (To help the bees vent heat by the way, we
also crack the top cover back the width of a pencil in summer months, also
to help the bees ripen/dry nectar faster).

Dee.