Whew! I have started a real bee hive here...so sorry.
The reason for top entrance for me is simple. Don't let the "Sunshine State" fool you, it is hot and humid. Moisture drips off the house every morning, everything is wet, then the heat gets turned on. Our A/C just pours water out the drain. Can't decide which is worse most days in the summer. So Ventilation is a must so as to not put the bee under stress. We live out in the country...No housing around, so we have LOTS of wild critters that are interested in the hive. To get a good air flow helps with dehydrating the honey down to 18% before being capped. Helps with over heated bees that are stuck in the hive taking care of brood. Now this is Top entrance WITH a SBB.
>Hey Terrex, where are you in the panhandle? I used to live in P-Cola
We live close to Paxton.
No, I am not even interested in a AHB. Not interested in a aggressive hive. I do understand why they are "recommending" re-queening ...but every 6 months or even every year??? Geez, seems excessive. Plus, if you re-queen that often, how do you keep the genetics of the bee hive going? But things do go wrong, and you lose the queen, whether to old age (maybe) or birds, maybe she was killed by you, then you of course would have to re-queen.
I am out at the hive everyday. I am NO expert, I have gone into the hive several times without protective wear. The inspector told me to light up my smoker...Told him that I never had used it. So I got it for him, but asked him not to smoke heavy. He also told me to suit up. I just shook my head no. He said OK?? He lit the smoker and gave it a puff, I told him that was enough, that the bees get very confused and ask him if he was alright with this...he said, well I will take your word for it. We had no problems, the bees did not even land on us. He did take his time looking at everything and it was getting cool. When he closed it up it said everything was nice and clean. ( Well, I guess so,,,my hive is new) I was already miffed...to put it nicely, but then he turned and sat on my hive like a chair so that he could talk. I wanted to deck him.
This inspector said that he would CALL to make the appointment for next year.
Florida does not have car inspections. We pay for tags thur the mail. Plus this year, they sent me a notice to renew my drivers license. We did it on line, they used the picture from the old license. Sweet.