Imirie Shim

[capebee]

The way my hive is set up is there is a 10 frame hive body, on top sits an inner cover and on top of that another hive
body (empty, which covers the gallon feed bucket) and the telescoping cover on top of all that. When I inspected the hive
yesterday (my first time) the bees gathered on top of the frames. When I went to close it all up again and went to put
the inner cover back on.... it felt like I'd crush all the bees that had gathered on top of the frames. Would an Imirie Shim
give more space between the inner cover and the bottom hive body? I've been reading about the shim and wondering if it's
a good feature to use.... any one use this item?

thanks

[snl]

Smoke the bees back down prior to putting on the IC............You may need to place another hive body on the hive......... The shim has it's pluses and minuses (as all things) but it is mainly used between supers to give the bees another entrance....

[Oldbee]

Puff some smoke along the top outer edges of the box when about to place something on top; most of the bees will go back into the hive. No need to smoke the entrances. [I have seen a video of a beek doing that] The bees will just have a tendency to boil up top during inspections. A few light puffs wafted in front to calm some guard bees is fine,..I guess.

The I. shims can be used to provide space for pollen patties sometimes. I have tried to use them for an extra entrance between boxes/supers but then there are 12-16 surfaces to get lined up and more places for bees to get crushed; and then maybe a lot of burr comb between boxes. Not fun when the boxes start to get heavy. I have holes for extra entrances in my boxes; some beeks don't like that. You can try them if you want.