Is entrance reducer neccessary?

[Gypsi]

My swarm trap door might be the thing. One per opening. Tomato paste lid, and a circle of plastic needlepoint canvas. Just turn it to adjust the opening. A square would work too. The can lid will block mice better though.

[MrHappy]

One thing I've read is to just nail through the hole to cut it in half. That would turn it into a 1/2" hole and keep out the critters.

[mmiller]

My first 2 TBH's had 3, 1" holes for entrances and sit about 3ft off the ground. For the past 4 years I have left one hole open during winter and have never had vermin get in these hives. This year both of them had a dead rat (not mouse) just inside the entrance. This is just in the last couple weeks. I will be using some sort of reducer going forward even on my elevated hives.

Mike

[linn]

Hi Rob. I am building 5 frame nucs to use as swarm traps. The entrances to the nucs are 6/8'' by 2 2/8 " (bottom entrances). Is a chicane entrance basically a false entrance at the opposite end of the true entrance? Is a chicane entrance similar to the the entrance to a robbing screen-where the entrance is above and to the side of the true entrance. I have some mesh from taken from a package bee container. Will using the mesh make the scent of the lure more noticeable to the bees? Thanks so much. linn

[robherc]

Hi linn,

The chicane entrance I came up with for this thread isn't really much related to a robber screen entrance at all; it's more of a "twisty-turvy tunnel entrance" that forces anything trying to enter the hive to go through a pair of tight turns, thus keeping birds & mice from readily entering your hives. (see post #16)

On swarm traps, you can use the chicane entrance, but be sure to use SOLID wood for all of the parts; you're not trying to confuse the bees that are trying to move in, just block out bigger/longer critters.

I would not recommend using any kind of mesh, or "robber screen" over a not-yet-populated swarm trap, as it may make it hard for any swarms/scouts to "figure out" how to move in. That said, I've never tried using a robber screen type entrance on a swarm trap, so that's just my opinion...if someone else has used one and it works for them, then I guess my opinion will have been disproven

As far as the swarm lure scent goes, I put a few dabs on each of my comb guides (I plan on building a web-page photo-documentary on my top-bar/frame building process at This Page after I get some sleep...pulled an all-nighter building a couple bigger hives for colonies that were outgrowing the equipment I had them in...(i.e. that link is a dead link right now, but I'll be posting a page at that address [hopefully] sometime in the next 24hrs). I found out by putting 64 bars in my car @ once that that method leaves PLENTY of Nasonov scent for a trap...smelled like I was driving around in a baited swarm trap today!

[taydeko]

Check out Michael Bushes entrances on his top bar. No holes. Just slide the first bar back 3/8 to 1/2 inch.

Ted

[linn]

Hi Rob, I appreciate your response. I know what you mean about bees outgrowing their equipment. We have had some pretty cold nights lately 28 degrees;so, that puts a break on swarming. Our swarming season starts end of May. Again, thanks so much. linn

[mrobinson]

1/2" or 5/8" holes (big enough for ordinary wine cork) are plenty big enough for bees and convenient corks. Hives goin' gangbusters with just one hole open now.

[robherc]

OOps, that link had the wrong URL...the page is (sorta) up now...photos but no captions...will work on those as soon as I find time again.....
Photo-documentary page on building my top-bars (the pic at the very BOTTOM shows me adding the imitation Nasonov to the bottom edge of a comb guide)