# Beehive upper entrance



## Dan the bee guy (Jun 18, 2015)

You have some new bees that have used the upper entrance as more new bees emerge it will be used more.


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## Bee Nut (Oct 10, 2015)

Vince- question: why go into winter with a queen excluder? Was it because they were empty when you put them back on or do you guys not get enough cold weather to worry about a cluster moving up into the honey? I realize it's been warm but is there no more chance for cold weather where you live? Just curious.


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## Vince (Jun 22, 2014)

Bee Nut said:


> Vince- question: why go into winter with a queen excluder? Was it because they were empty when you put them back on or do you guys not get enough cold weather to worry about a cluster moving up into the honey? I realize it's been warm but is there no more chance for cold weather where you live? Just curious.


It does not get cold enough here to worry about the bees moving up into the supers. It is very seldom the daytime temperatures don't get into the 50s, even on the coldest days in the winter. In fact, they have been bringing in honey all fall and winter. That is one of the benefits of beekeeping in the middle of a city of over a million people. There is such a diverse number of trees and flowers that something is in bloom all year round. What we don't get is a big honey flow, the type where the bees fill a super in a week. It is more like a slow and steady pace. My bees fill a couple of supers every 4 or 5 months, year round. I average about 100 pounds of honey per hive per year. 

Back to why I use a queen excluder. I usually have 2 or 3 frames in each super for comb honey. When I did not use a queen excluder the queen would always lay in the super and in my frames for comb honey.


Vince


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Vince said:


> Last August I drilled some holes in my supers for an upper entrance. I had read that they were especially useful if you used a queen excluder, which I do. Well, they never used them. I just figured my bees were not the type to use them. In the last couple of days (when it was sunny) I was checking on them to see how they were doing. Much to my surprise they were using the upper entrances. Watching them for a while I never saw a bee with pollen go in an upper entrance, but lots of bees with pollen going in the lower entrance.
> 
> I posted a video of the hive activity here:
> 
> ...


That's neat. Thanks for sharing the video and audio comments. Looks to me as though the bees with pollen are taking the lower entrance, perhaps because that is where the pollen is needed, closest to where the brood is. What would be interesting to know is whether bees leaving via the top entrance return to the bottom when laden with pollen and whether those leaving by the top entrance return to the top entrance when not. You could mark the bees exiting via the top entrance so you could see which entrance they use when returning home.


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## Bee Nut (Oct 10, 2015)

Interesting. Never get tired of learning more about other areas. Thanks for sharing.


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## tommyt (Aug 7, 2010)

Vince 
In regards to your non-cluster winters and slow but steady flows.I see you have 2 deeps for brood chamber, I'm curious as to what the bees do with all that space.
Do they fill both with brood?is the upper one a mix? What do you think the percentage of 
the upper is in food versus brood.
Here in central fl. most use only one deep then their excluder,I've noticed some here locally have started to put a super over the brood then the excluder. 
Nice video


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## Vince (Jun 22, 2014)

tommyt said:


> Vince
> In regards to your non-cluster winters and slow but steady flows.I see you have 2 deeps for brood chamber, I'm curious as to what the bees do with all that space.
> Do they fill both with brood?is the upper one a mix? What do you think the percentage of
> the upper is in food versus brood


In the spring when they get going, each brood box will have about 5 or 6 frames of brood, the rest honey and pollen. In February, I will have to pull 2 or more frames honey from each brood box to keep them from getting honey bound. I have not tried a single brood box here. It seems everyone in our bee club runs two deep brood boxes. This is only my second year so I am still learning and trying new things. Two brood boxes makes for very easy spits in the spring. Just separate them into two hives, add an empty brood box and you have two pretty strong hives. My first year I started with one nuc and one swarm and ended with 10 hives with all the splits (plus two swarm captures, one that did not make it). All my hives survived the winter last year.

Vince


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