[trunkman]

I installed a package on April 2nd and it is doing extremely well, lots of eggs, larvae, and brood. I started this package in 2 medium 8 frame hive and they are almost full. On April 11th I started 2 more hives with nucs which ended up having laying workers and no queen, the person I bought the nucs from made good on the nucs and replaced them 10 days ago, the nucs had lots of brood, eggs, honey and pollen. It kind of concerned me to see a few bees with deformed wings but chalked it up to them being at the end of their life cycle. That being said when I was observing the hives today I saw lots of activity at all the entrances, as many as 75 bees at each entrance going in and out but saw no hint of distress or fighting so I'm assuming they were just doing their thing. The entrance seemed crowded to me so I'm wondering if I should get rid of the entrance reducers now or wait a while more. Any comments would be appreciated. :scratch:

 

[brooksbeefarm]

I've taken all mine off, sounds like you have a flow going on or starting so you will be good.

 

[drlonzo]

I started my packages on April 6 and still use the reducers at this point. It all depends upon your situation. Someone once told me that you don't need to remove the reducers at all, others say yes once the opening is crowded, others say keep it wide open.

My take on it is this, i've seen hollowed out logs with bees in them and only a small three bee sized hole in and out. They did fine. So for me, i go the way of waiting till there is too much traffic and then i'll open it more. Right now i'm using a 4 inch wide x 3/8 opening. Started with the smaller 3 bee sized hole though. As more bees crowd in and out i will open more. It also helps to keep the heat in the hive for them to draw wax too.

 

[Mr.Beeman]

Personal preference I am sure, but I have seen the 4" wide opening to full on open to 3/4" holes used by commercial guys.