When should I take enterance reducer off?

[Sean Kelly]

The weather has been pretty nice around here the last week or so and have been noticing a major bottle neck at the enterance.  Took the reducer off and it gave them all the room they needed.  But I was sorta worried about other bugs and stuff getting in at night.  Also the temp swings down into the 40's at night.  I've been putting the reducer back on at night, but I work graveyard and that's becoming a pain.  Is it ok to just leave it off?  Am I getting ahead of myself here?  lol

Sean Kelly

[indypartridge]

Leave it off.

[Understudy]

The entrance reducer has two sizes on it. One very small and one a little larger. The small one is suppose to be a winter opening the larger one a summer opening. However I have discovered that you are probably better off removing it completely if the traffic is very heavy.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[TwT]

the main purpose of a entrance reducer is to help the bee's protect their hive from being robbed out by other hives or bumble bee's, wasp, yellow jackets, ect. . the smaller the amount of bee's the smaller the entrance should be, as the hive grows the entrance should be enlarged, once the hive entrance is causing a traffic jam then it should be removed, by that time the hive should have enough population to take care of itself without being robbed  out, but like understudy said above you can put in on in the winter to help the hive stay warmer.

[Mklangelo]

I never even put mine on after my packages were installed. Oh well.  I don't see that it did any harm.

[Michael Bush]

I always wait until there's a traffic jam and then take them off.

[Sean Kelly]

Ok, that's what I figured.  Thought I'd ask first.  I'll go take it off today.  I was just worried about it getting too cold for them without it.

Sean Kelly