# Is entrance reducer neccessary?



## dehavik (Jun 5, 2010)

I don't like the idea of going _inside_ the hive to place and remove wire mesh to reduce the entrance. I have five 1" holes on each of my TBHs and I plugged three of them on each to reduce the cold coming into the hive. The holes are about 2 1/2 ft. off the ground, and though I've had mice problems with my Langstroths, mice didn't seem to attempt to get into the TBHs. If you feel wire mesh is a must, I'd tack a piece over the holes on the _outside_ so you don't have to open the front of the hive and move comb (likely with brood) around in the cold weather in order to give the bees their full entrance.


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## Steven Ogborn (Jun 3, 2011)

MY TBHs have 5 one inch holes on the end of them. If you're wanting to use the half inch mesh for mouse guards, you could
just staple whatever holes you wanted left open with the mesh on the outside of the hive. This shouldn't bother them.
You'll only need the mesh when the bees are clustered in the top of the hive when it's cold.


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## Steven Ogborn (Jun 3, 2011)

Ha Ha, dehavik.
We said almost the same thing at about the same time.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

1/4" mesh may inhibit mice, but it won't slow the bees down. Certainly sounds like a plausible use.


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## dehavik (Jun 5, 2010)

Steven Ogborn said:


> Ha Ha, dehavik.
> We said almost the same thing at about the same time.


Great minds and all that.


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## Bush_84 (Jan 9, 2011)

I had a mouse nest in my TBH this winter. I had assumed that the height of my hive would keep them out, but I guess I was wrong. I would say that my entrance is easily 3.5 feet up (I'm 6'5" so a tall hive is nice on the back). You could also probably just cut some corks in half the long way and plug some holes that way.


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## quevernick (Feb 22, 2011)

I use 1/4 inch mesh on all of my TBH Swarm Traps in order to keep mice, birds, and other small critters out of them. My regular TBH's both closed off the entrance themselves, one only had a hole barely small enough for a bee to get in and out. The other one closed off half of it.


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## robherc (Mar 17, 2012)

hmmm...could cut a 1.5" wide by however long piece of 1/8"-1/4" stock; mount it to the hive with some screw that are just ABOVE and BELOW it, so only the screw heads touch it...inline with your entrance holes. Then you could slide it off to the side to open the "gate" more, or slide it back into place to close it more; if you make it long enough you could even slide it all the way over all the entrances to "close the hive" for transport


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## quevernick (Feb 22, 2011)

You could make or use something like this too (if your using a round hole):

http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Nuc-Disc-Entrance/productinfo/676DE/

I know alot of people use them for swarm traps and even make them out of soup can lids.


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## Beev (Jul 16, 2011)

If you just wanted an entrance reducer and not necessarily a mouse guard, you could just drill a 1/2" hole through a cork.


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## robherc (Mar 17, 2012)

Here's a pic of my "door" on one of my TBH boxes.








Tongue depressor slides Left for shut, Right for open...then I just tighten the screw holding down the lid to lock it in place.


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## BoBn (Jul 7, 2008)

nysharps said:


> Anyway, I'm building my own top bar hive, using the Phil Chandler design. He advises drilling 3 1" holes for the entrance.


A 1" hole is too big to plug with a wine cork. 7/8" is a good size since wine corks will fit. I use a half cork opening in the winter.



quevernick said:


> I use 1/4 inch mesh


1/4" will cause the bees to lose a lot of pollen loads.


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## nysharps (Mar 16, 2012)

BoBn said:


> 1/4" will cause the bees to lose a lot of pollen loads.


Actually, I initially said 1/2". Would 1/2" have that problem? It should be more than big enough for bees...


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

I believe that mice can pass through 1/2" wire mesh without much difficulty.

"They can slip through a crack that a pencil _will fit_ into (sightly larger than 1/4 inch in. . .", a quote from http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/pchousemouse.htm.


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## robherc (Mar 17, 2012)

Joseph Clemens said:


> I believe that mice can pass through 1/2" wire mesh without much difficulty.


Hmmm...unfortunately, I have to agree with that one...pesky little buggers aren't they.....

Ok, here's a new idea of something that should be 99.99% mouse-PROOF; and it's not nearly as complicated as it may at first sound:

Step 1: Drill a decently large hole (we'll call it 1") in your TBH for an entrance;









Step 2: Cut pieces of 3/8"-1/2" plywood and attach them to your TBH creating a "slot" around your hole;









Step 3: Cut another piece of wood, large enough to cover the entire "slot," and with a hole (same size as the first one, preferably) near the OPPOSITE end of the slot, attached to the front of the plywood pieces. (The slot *must* be long enough that no portion of the holes "overlap")









Now you should have something similar to this:








That would require a Mouse-dini (or Houdinamouse) to be able to bend itself into 2 90degree angles at once, in order to invade your beehive! And, assuming the holes+slot are wide enough, should offer very little obstacle to your bees' entering/exiting and ventilating the hive. 

I haven't caught a single mouse entering my hives yet, so I haven't had the opportunity to try this myself; but I've seen mice getting into plenty of other things around my property, and I haven't seen any that could accomplish an invasion through THAT...fwiw


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

robherc,
Sounds like an interesting entrance design for top bar hives. Especially where mice infiltration is rife.


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## nysharps (Mar 16, 2012)

That does sound like a great idea. Kinda what the Ottomans did with castles to prevent the use of battering rams against the gates...

However, is one 1" hole enough for a hive?


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## robherc (Mar 17, 2012)

nysharps said:


> However, is one 1" hole enough for a hive?


If you check quavernick's pic in this thread, his bees closed up all of the holes, except they left about 3/8"x1/2" open in one... If you find that your bees like the extra opening space, though, you could always put 2-3 of these "chicane" entrances on the hive...or use a larger hole, just that the "chicane" section needs to be at least 2.5-3x as long as the diameter of the holes (i.e. use a 2.5"-3" slot for 1" holes, 5"-6" slot for 2" holes, etc.) so there's no way a mouse could "cut a diagonal" through them.


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## quevernick (Feb 22, 2011)

The bees actually had the entrances closed up even further than the pictures indicate. I didn't think about getting a picture when they were almost completely closed up. I took the pictures in February and the bees had been going out quite frequently and had opened up the entrances some.


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## Gypsi (Mar 27, 2011)

My swarm trap door might be the thing. One per opening. Tomato paste lid, and a circle of plastic needlepoint canvas. Just turn it to adjust the opening. A square would work too. The can lid will block mice better though.


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## MrHappy (Feb 10, 2012)

One thing I've read is to just nail through the hole to cut it in half. That would turn it into a 1/2" hole and keep out the critters.


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## mmiller (Jun 17, 2010)

My first 2 TBH's had 3, 1" holes for entrances and sit about 3ft off the ground. For the past 4 years I have left one hole open during winter and have never had vermin get in these hives. This year both of them had a dead rat (not mouse) just inside the entrance. This is just in the last couple weeks. I will be using some sort of reducer going forward even on my elevated hives.

Mike


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## linn (Nov 19, 2010)

Hi Rob. I am building 5 frame nucs to use as swarm traps. The entrances to the nucs are 6/8'' by 2 2/8 " (bottom entrances). Is a chicane entrance basically a false entrance at the opposite end of the true entrance? Is a chicane entrance similar to the the entrance to a robbing screen-where the entrance is above and to the side of the true entrance. I have some mesh from taken from a package bee container. Will using the mesh make the scent of the lure more noticeable to the bees? Thanks so much. linn


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## robherc (Mar 17, 2012)

Hi linn,

The chicane entrance I came up with for this thread isn't really much related to a robber screen entrance at all; it's more of a "twisty-turvy tunnel entrance" that forces anything trying to enter the hive to go through a pair of tight turns, thus keeping birds & mice from readily entering your hives. (see post #16)

On swarm traps, you can use the chicane entrance, but be sure to use SOLID wood for all of the parts; you're not trying to confuse the bees that are trying to move in, just block out bigger/longer critters.

I would *not* recommend using any kind of mesh, or "robber screen" over a not-yet-populated swarm trap, as it may make it hard for any swarms/scouts to "figure out" how to move in. That said, I've never tried using a robber screen type entrance on a swarm trap, so that's just my opinion...if someone else has used one and it works for them, then I guess my opinion will have been disproven 

As far as the swarm lure scent goes, I put a few dabs on each of my comb guides (I plan on building a web-page photo-documentary on my top-bar/frame building process at This Page after I get some sleep...pulled an all-nighter building a couple bigger hives for colonies that were outgrowing the equipment I had them in...(i.e. that link is a dead link right now, but I'll be posting a page at that address [hopefully] sometime in the next 24hrs). I found out by putting 64 bars in my car @ once that that method leaves PLENTY of Nasonov scent for a trap...smelled like I was driving around in a baited swarm trap today! :lookout:


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## taydeko (Jan 3, 2012)

Check out Michael Bushes entrances on his top bar. No holes. Just slide the first bar back 3/8 to 1/2 inch.

Ted


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## linn (Nov 19, 2010)

Hi Rob, I appreciate your response. I know what you mean about bees outgrowing their equipment. We have had some pretty cold nights lately 28 degrees;so, that puts a break on swarming. Our swarming season starts end of May. Again, thanks so much. linn


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## mrobinson (Jan 20, 2012)

1/2" or 5/8" holes (big enough for ordinary wine cork) are plenty big enough for bees and convenient corks. Hives goin' gangbusters with just one hole open now.


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## robherc (Mar 17, 2012)

OOps, that link had the wrong URL...the page is (sorta) up now...photos but no captions...will work on those as soon as I find time again.....
Photo-documentary page on building my top-bars (the pic at the very BOTTOM shows me adding the imitation Nasonov to the bottom edge of a comb guide)


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