Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS => Topic started by: AllanJ on March 18, 2007, 01:51:45 am
-
I saw some plans the other day that had a small landing board and then to gain entrance to the hive, the bees went vertical. The advantage was that it reduced robbing and stopped mice without the need for a mouse guard. Has anyone tried such an entrance?
Also, I read that moths gained entrance to the hive by darting in fast past the bee guards. If you had such a vertical entrance, would that reduce the chance of moths?
-
I have not seen what you're describing unless it's a robber screen. Robber screens work well to stop robbing and work well to keep skunks out. I never noticed any difference in the moths.
-
Ah I found it..
http://www.bbka.org.uk/freefiles/diy_open_mesh_floor-graham-white.pdf
Page 2..
HOW DOES AN UNDERFLOOR ENTRANCE WORK?
The bees fly into a covered vestibule which is a sheltered space about 4 inches deep and four inches high, running the full width of the hive. They walk across the landing board and climb the rear vestibule wall to enter the hive through an 8mm wide vertical slot that runs the full width of the mesh floor.
The advantages of this are that:
• No rain, wind or draughts can blow directly into the hive front
• No mouse-guard needed; mice cannot climb up through the vertical 8mm slot
• Wasps and robber-bees have a harder time getting in; they have to pass the guardbees on the landing board and then climb up past more guards above the vertical slot entrance.
• A simple wooden block closes the hive completely
• No ventilation needed when moving the beehive.
There is no mention of wax moths, so that was my thought, if something like this would possible reduce wax moths from getting into the hive..
-
OH yeah. This has been posted around here somewhere.
Here it is
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php?topic=4225.0