observation hive entrance size

[drobbins]

Hello All,

I've built myself an observation hive and permanently installed it in my basement
currently the entrance is a piece of copper tubing with an ID of 3/4"
that's smaller than most of what I hear people mention
on the other hand it's straight, only 6" long and has no kinks
do you suppose this will be enough of a restriction to cause a problem?
don't bees often deal with this small an entrance in the wild?

Dave

[ February 24, 2006, 03:48 PM: Message edited by: drobbins ]

[Michael Bush]

My tube is 1 1/4" in diameter on both of them that are currently occupied. The Van Frisch has an entrance reducer that is made of plexiglass and slides into the base to reduce the entrance. The opening is about like a squished 1/2" hole. Meaning it's a little more than 1/2" wide and less than 1/2" high. It's too small when the hive is booming, but nice for cutting down on robbing when it's still struggling. My other hive has no entrance reducer and robbing is occasionally a problem. Usually my solution is to close it up at night and not open it until just before dark the next day. The robbers get tired of trying to get in.

I don't know what the best size would be but 3/4" sounds reasonable to me. Espcially if it's short and in a straight line.

[drobbins]

thanks
I think I'll leave it as it is
to make it bigger I'll have to notch a difficult to reach stud

Dave