Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => TOP BAR HIVES - WARRE HIVES - LONG HIVES => Topic started by: swflcpl on February 22, 2013, 04:56:51 pm

Title: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: swflcpl on February 22, 2013, 04:56:51 pm
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/23/asezadad.jpg)

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/23/zuvyduja.jpg)

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/23/ugegu4ep.jpg)

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/23/ju6ape3u.jpg)

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/23/my7azu2e.jpg)

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.
http://hotrockacreshomestead.wordpress.com
Title: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: Bush_84 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?
Title: Re: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: swflcpl 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

http://hotrockacreshomestead.wordpress.com
Title: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: Nathan-D 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.
Title: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: Nathan-D 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.
Title: Re: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: swflcpl 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.

http://hotrockacreshomestead.wordpress.com
Title: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: Nathan-D 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.
Title: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: swflcpl 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
Title: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: Sundog 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!
Title: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: Michael Bush on February 26, 2013, 10:55:42 am
Here is my entrance with the cover in place:
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/TBHEntrance1.JPG (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 (http://www.bushfarms.com/images/TBHEntrance2.JPG)

Title: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: hardwood 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
Title: Re: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: swflcpl 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.

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/27/e5ynyhyr.jpg)

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/27/3u7y8ase.jpg)

(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/02/27/2a6u6e3e.jpg)

Thanks for all the info, inspiration and help.

http://hotrockacreshomestead.wordpress.com
Title: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: Sundog 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.)

(http://i865.photobucket.com/albums/ab218/Sunchaser01/Bee%20Stuff/DSCN0858_zps21b9a193.jpg)
Title: Re: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: swflcpl 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. 

http://hotrockacreshomestead.wordpress.com
Title: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: Nathan-D 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
Title: Re: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: swflcpl on February 26, 2013, 08:19:40 pm
Punta Gorda area here

http://hotrockacreshomestead.wordpress.com
Title: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: Nathan-D 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.
Title: Re: Re: Will this entrance be sufficient and work?
Post by: swflcpl on February 26, 2013, 10:07:34 pm
I'm seeing them everywhere since I've moved out here. Lots on 75 and 41

http://hotrockacreshomestead.wordpress.com