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Author Topic: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?  (Read 5326 times)

Offline swflcpl

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Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« on: February 22, 2013, 04:56:51 pm »










It's about 1/2 wide on the end bar (not grooved for a comb) and deeper than that from edge toward inside hive. It's the only entrance into the joint. The space there in the last picture is the roof overhang

Thanks for opinions.
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Offline Bush_84

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Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2013, 10:57:36 pm »
Doesn't look like a good solitary entrance but good for an upper entrance, especially for northern states.  I used to run up to six 7/8th inch entrance (circular holes) and during our flow they were packed.  It's brilliant but again probably not enough.

Edit also your top bars look a bit thin.  How thick are they?
Keeping bees since 2011.

Also please excuse the typos.  My iPad autocorrect can be brutal.

Offline swflcpl

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Re: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2013, 09:01:26 am »
SW Florida here, no Northerly concerns here

Some of the bars are 9/16 and some 3/4 but then all have their edge rabbeted off to recess the comb part down into the hive

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Offline Nathan-D

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Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2013, 10:23:58 am »
Are you using spacers?  I use 1 1/4" top bars in the front half and 1 1/2 in the back half. Alot of people use 1 3/8 top bars but 9/16 isn't wide enough, I'm pretty sure.

Offline Nathan-D

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Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2013, 10:25:41 am »
Never mind I  was looking at the width of the notched bar, now I see the other ones. Sorry.

Offline swflcpl

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Re: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2013, 11:38:01 am »
Yeah I assumed he was talking up/down thickness. The widths are 1 1/4 and 1 1/2.

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Offline Nathan-D

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Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2013, 03:04:58 pm »
I think a thinner bar is better, less bees to crush.  My bars are 1" and1 1/2" thick and it's a pain closing up the bars with the 1 1/2".  If I had to do it again I would use 3/4" thick bars.

Offline swflcpl

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Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2013, 08:40:51 pm »
I see now on the Bush farm website, he seems to have left an entire bar off the end for his entrance.  I couldn't quite decipher the pictures on previous visits, but found a post on another site and coupled with that can see now how he has his entrance.  I was trying to keep the entire top still covered while still allowing them into the hive through that first bar.  The only way I could see doing that was just to make that notch at the end of that first "bar".  I will now just leave off the entire first bar of about an inch worth of space.

swflcpl

Offline Sundog

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Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #8 on: February 26, 2013, 12:27:08 am »
Swflcpl

Regarding entrances, I think they are a bigger deal for Beeks than bees.  As I said while you were here, Beeks have been tinkering and debating for hundreds of years and yet bees thrive in spite of them. 

My two cents regarding top entrances would be to remind you that they are mostly advantageous on Langs so that the bees don’t need to navigate up through several stories of brood and supers to store their goods.  Travelling horizontally that becomes somewhat of a moot point.
 
Drill two or three ¾ inch holes in the side (high or low or both) and be done with it, then you can plug one or two of them if you choose to.  Put a couple at each end and see what works best.  I don’t think the bees will go in under your top as you would like for them to.  Mine wouldn’t leave the unused section past the follower and died there so I sealed it off.

Don’t give them too many bars too fast.  Keep them tight and watch for SHB until they build up numbers.  Do you have bees yet?

Regards and have fun!

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #9 on: February 26, 2013, 10:55:42 am »
Here is my entrance with the cover in place:
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/TBHEntrance1.JPG

Here it is with the cover pushed back so you can see the bars:
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/TBHEntrance2.JPG

My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
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Offline hardwood

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Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #10 on: February 26, 2013, 01:09:08 pm »
With such a small entrance I would think you'd have a traffic jam during a flow.

Scott
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

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Offline swflcpl

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Re: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #11 on: February 26, 2013, 01:38:30 pm »
Yeah I was having trouble seeing exactly what was going on in those photos until I read someone else's post about your setup. I see now the entire width of the hive is open in the space which would otherwise contain the first bar. That is my current plan now. And here I try to document it.







Thanks for all the info, inspiration and help.

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Offline Sundog

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Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #12 on: February 26, 2013, 02:00:15 pm »
With such a small entrance I would think you'd have a traffic jam during a flow.

Scott

+1   :th_thumbsupup:

Scott knows Florida bees!  Conditions vary, stay flexible.  You saw how fast they were coming and going the other day, and that was not even busy since there is no flow at the moment.

Did you find any bees yet?

...and have fun! 
(This is why the entrance reducer is removable.)


Offline swflcpl

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Re: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #13 on: February 26, 2013, 03:31:24 pm »
I am still trying to find some buckets and some sort of can or jar to set the legs on to make a moat to keep the ants at bay.  So the hives haven't been set up yet. 

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Offline Nathan-D

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Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #14 on: February 26, 2013, 04:54:55 pm »
SWFL couple, Where are you guys?  I'm originally from Port Charlotte but spent alot of time in Ft Myers and Sarasota.  Now I live in Ft. Lauderdale.

nathan

Offline swflcpl

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Re: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #15 on: February 26, 2013, 08:19:40 pm »

Offline Nathan-D

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Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #16 on: February 26, 2013, 09:16:09 pm »
I always see a bunch of hives on right side of I-75 heading north just before the bridge.  Do you belong to a group there?  Maybe I'll attend as I'm over there every so often.

Offline swflcpl

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Re: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
« Reply #17 on: February 26, 2013, 10:07:34 pm »
I'm seeing them everywhere since I've moved out here. Lots on 75 and 41

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