What size holes?

[trickn7474]

what size holes should I drill for my entrances? I am going to drill round holes and use corks to control access.

[Michael Bush]

I prefer no holes and just leave the front top bar back (which you need to do anyway for proper spacing) but if you want holes, make them small enough to keep out the mice and big enough to let in the bees. That would probably be about 3/8".

[BWrangler]

Hi trickin7474,

Bees have a few entrance preferences, but they'll work with just about anything. Researchers have found that bees prefer entrances:

# 20 to 40 square cm area.
# at bottom of cavity.
# 4cm maximum entrance diameter

Those preferences aren't very restrictive. So, let your preferences prevail. What size are the corks? Will you use mouse guards on the entrances or make the entrance small enough not to need them?

Try out your preference. If you don't like the results, you can easily change a tbh entrance. I've changed them on mine several different times.

Regards
Dennis

[BjornBee]

what size holes should I drill for my entrances? I am going to drill round holes and use corks to control access.

I go with 3/8 holes. I have a long row of 6 holes, about 1/2 inch spaced, if memory serves correct.

[BjornBee]

Hi trickin7474,

Bees have a few entrance preferences, but they'll work with just about anything. Researchers have found that bees prefer entrances:

# 20 to 40 square cm area.
# at bottom of cavity.
# 4cm maximum entrance diameter

Those preferences aren't very restrictive. So, let your preferences prevail. What size are the corks? Will you use mouse guards on the entrances or make the entrance small enough not to need them?

Try out your preference. If you don't like the results, you can easily change a tbh entrance. I've changed them on mine several different times.

Regards
Dennis

Dennis, I always quote research from Roger Morse on the subject of entrance location. He stated that bees prefer bottom entrances many times as shown in studies. But I always wondered why? Obviously the bees have been programmed over the ages to seek out cavities with lower entrances. I thought about water issues in a cavity such as a tree that could fill if not properly sealed. I have also wondered about hive sanitation issues. What about efficiency issues? And perhaps even heat retention/control.

What do you think would cause bees to seek out bottom entrances over top entrances?

Attempting to keep bees as natural as possible and gain any benefit, even the smallest or slightest advantage, is a goal of mine. We may always think of obvious reasons, but I think there are smaller compounding issues that may not be realized by beekeepers sometimes.

Thanks.

[BWrangler]

Hi Bjorn and Everyone,

>...but I think there are smaller compounding issues that may not be realized by beekeepers sometimes.

I've come to the same conclusion as well. And I've found out the hard way that working with the bees in much easier than working against them.

While tracking winter moisture/ventilation issues in Wyoming, see www.bwrangler.com/bee/gwin.htm , I notice a curious behavior. I don't think I've shared this before.

Anytime the plex cover was removed and then put back in place with minimum disturbance, many of the bees near the plex would stop what they were doing and immediately begin repairing any gaps between the hive body and the plex cover. They weren't attracted to the light coming through the plex. But were immediately drawn to the gaps between the cover and the hive body.

This behavior was consistent and strong. So, I did a little test.

Without completely removing the plex cover, I would pry up and wedge a corner and watch what happened with different sized gaps. A single test would be run every few days, so the bees could come into equilibrium with the gap I'd created.

There were some very interesting results. But to sum it up, the bees saw any upward and outward ventilation as a problem and tried to fix it. Even gaps that were too small to measure with a scale and didn't admit any light visible to my eye were immediately repaired.

It's a curious note that when compared to my Lang and my long hives, my tbh bees fly earlier. And they spend less time and require fewer workers to fan on hot days. I would think that, with the almost non-existent ventilation in a tbh, the opposite would be true.

All of the factors you've mentioned are good reasons.

Sometimes a small observation can lead to some dramatic improvements. As a result of my plex observations, I began feeding water to my late winter/early spring, top ventilated bees. Those watered hives did much better than their un-watered companions. The dramatic increase in early spring bee populations allowed me to jump start my queen rearing activities by more than a month.

But after a few more years of plex observations, I plugged up the top ventilation and got the same results without feeding water.

Regards
Dennis

[buckbee]

All the ad hoc tests I have done also indicate that bees prefer low entrances, which they demonstrate by propolizing higher ones. As Dennis says, they also propolize any attempts at providing top ventilation.

So I just go along with their apparent preferences and have low entrances - three 1" holes in the middle of one side. My hives are on legs and not even a circus mouse could get into them!

[Moonshae]

What do you think would cause bees to seek out bottom entrances over top entrances?


I would suspect that hive debris falling down near the entrance would be easier for the housekeepers than them having to drag things up out of the productive area to the entrance.

It would also trap the heat in the hive during the winter.