Top Entrance

[Dunkel]

After dealing with a skunk problem last spring, I have thought about trying top entrances for some hives.  In Kentucky the snow usually isn't that big of a deal but critters sometimes are.  Also it would cut down on some of the equipment to deal with.

 I've been satisfied with the ventilation from bottom boards and a vent in the inner cover rim. But I can see the benefit of a upper entrance only, but what are the down sides?

[robo]

Been there, done that.

Let me summarize how a hive inspection goes.

1.  You take the cover/top entrance off and start looking through the frames in the top hive body.  Everything seems pretty normal,  bees from the lower hive bodies continue to come up through the hive body to where the exit is suppose to be and fly off.  Returning field bees return to the top of the hive and land on the edge of the hive body where the entrance use to reside and head down to the lower hive bodies.

2.  You complete looking through the top hive body but want to see more below, so you remove the top hive body.   Immediately returning field bees can't locate the entrance because it is gone.  They fly around a little taking a 2nd approach to find it still not there.   As time ticks by, more and more field bees return and can't find the missing entrance and add to the amount of bees flying around lost.   Exiting bees come up through the hives bodies and find the entrance gone but fly off the lip of the now highest hive body.  Most just fly off to forage, but some will swoop around a few times to try and reorient.

3.  As you continue to inspect the frames of this hive body the number of "lost" bees flying around continues to grow.   

4.  You still feel pretty calm and decide to go another hive body deeper.   About half way through the inspection of this hive body,  you start to not feel so comfortable standing in a thick swarm of misguided bees and decide it is time to get things back in order.   

5.  You attempt to put the hive bodies back on the stack only to battle not to crush a lot of bees that continue to pour out over the lip of the hive body in an attempt to exit as well as disoriented bees landing on the remaining hive bodies and climbing up and over into the hive.   You loose the battle.

6.  Repeat and loose the battle of step 5 for each hive body you need to put back on.

7.  Decide you are stress out enough not to try to inspect another hive today.

* and I spared the part of re-installing frames when bees are pouring over the frame rests 


Do yourself a favor and put some nail boards in front of your hives to keep the predators away from the entrances.


Rob....

[Dunkel]

Ok, I can see that top entrances aren't for me   Thanks for the heads up Robo, I'll go on to something else to try to may make things difficult for me and the bees.  Zero last night with eight inches on the ground is giving me time to mess things up for myself.

[Jen]

Hi Dunkel, I don't know how your hives are set up, but I do know that raising the hive up like the pic here, helps deter the critters. It's said that when the skunk raises up to get it's nose into the hive, the bees come out and sting it's belly.

[Riverrat]

Another down fall is its harder for the bees to get debris out of the hive

[riverbee]

"I've been satisfied with the ventilation from bottom boards and a vent in the inner cover rim. But I can see the benefit of a upper entrance only, but what are the down sides?"

just my HO, i have ventilation from the entrance and inner cover, about a 3 to 3 1/2" cut out on each of my inner covers, and i keep them notch down year round.  i think there is great benefit to this year round (both) for me here in wisconsin for many reasons.

i don't like the field bees having to  take a field trip up through the brood box to bring in nectar to the honey supers.   when i lift the cover off,  the bees are looking for that entrance when they come in, but they land on the front of the box and go on in. replacing the cover or box, just gently set it down at an angle and slowly move it into place, the bees move. removing a deep, pretty much the same. they are confused but this will be anytime we remove boxes from the hive.

in winter the bottom entrance gets snow covered, and there are lots of dead bees on the bottom board. the upper entrance get's them out.

as far as critters?  i have an electric fence that keeps everything out but mice.....

[apisbees]

I'm with river and keep both open most of the year. only close the top when strapping and moving for pollination
Yes the bees come back and their entrance is moved but the bees in the hive will be faning their sent
 and attracting the returning bees to the new entrence.
As far as bees flying around.in the air anb beeing.in a cloud of bees, it doesn't get any better than that. I love it when that happens.
Sent from my LG-P500h using Tapatalk 2

[robo]

Just to clarify,  he asked about  "upper entrance only".

There is a huge difference between running lower AND upper entrances   vs.  upper entrance only.

The experience I referenced was upper entrance only.

There is also the mid entrance option as well.   I tried it for a few years, and although it did keep the queen out of the honey supers,  I really found no useful benefit and returned to only bottom entrances.

Rob....

[riverbee]

oops you are right robo, i misread what dunkel said originally:

"But I can see the benefit of a upper entrance only, but what are the down sides?"

my apologies....

[LazyBkpr]

  Looks like you have excellent ventilation on your hives Robo. Mine are not vented as nicely..
   The only argument I have about bottom entrance only is when the supers are on. The field bees LOVE the top entrance. During a flow that small top entrance is often too small.   I have seen many times like this where they prefer the top entrance. Once the flow slows, they return to the bottom entrance, but always seem to use the top entrance a little.
   I dont normally use a queen excluder, but when I find I have a queen that wants to move up into the supers I will put one on, and have noticed the use of the top entrance greatly increase.
   I know he was talking about top entrance ONLY, I am saying have both, and get the hives up off the ground a bit. Top entrance doesnt need to be more than a 1.5 or 2" by 3/8 notch.   I am not a fan of drilling holes in my supers, but it is an option if you have no phobia about boring through that nice box.
   Michale Palmer advocates a 3/4 inch hole in the nuc's he uses, but I believe it was more of a ventilation thing than an entrance, and Rob's boxes appear to be upper society bee houses with the sweet climate control he has installed.


   I have had skunks and toads hanging out in front of my hives. I had hives on single pallets, and have wandered out late in the evening to just watch, and found two or three toads sitting happily in front of my hives zapping any bee that came too close.
   I raised them up another pallet and that seemed to fix the toad problem;



    Skunks are more determined.   Setting Cinder blocks and laying 4x4's across them gets the hives up about ten inches or so. I have not found any scratches on hives raised that high, and as a result of this height, I found that working the hives raised that high was SO MUCH nicer. Less worry about weed eating around them, and my back fell right in love.
  My stand across the pond here is too high. It is actually fine until I have two or three supers on top of the hives, then it is just too high.
   
   I keep a live trap near each set of hives. Usually baited with Leftovers.
   I have caught the neighbors cat a couple of times, but she seems to have learned to stay out of them now, so usually its possum, coons, and skunks.
   The problem comes in for most folks when they find that SKUNK in their live trap..    It is easier to deal with than you think.
    Take an old sheet, hold it up, and approach the trap smoothly. Dont be jerky or hasty. Simply drape the sheet over the trap, pick up the trap, set it in the back of the truck and transport.   Put the trap on the ground, pull the sheet out from under it and gently roll the trap upside down,and open the door. being upside down the door will stay open, the skunk will wander out and hurry away. I usually let them get a ways away before I give them lead poisoning to insure they never return.
    I have never been sprayed doing this, and I catch five or six skunks a year.   First couple of times you do it the heart hammers pretty good. Great way to test the ticker and make sure its working well!
 

[Dunkel]

I may have to raise them up another block or so.  This was a group I put some blocks down in a hurry when I brought the nucs to that location.  Never any problem before but I guess it took a few years to hone in on them.