# Hive entrance size.



## Vance G

The size and shape is only critical in being an area adequate for their needs in ingress and egress. 3/8th is fine and a couple inches loing to start. As the population increases, they will need it larger until all the way accross is appropriate. My entrance is 1/4" to slow down mice from entering. The bees like it just fine and use it and a top entrance as they have both available.


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## psfred

There are, as always, a variety of opinions on entrances and sizes, but the 3/4" deep entrance was originally intended for use in the winter, so that the only entrance (on the bottom of the hive) would not get clogged up with dead bees on a solid bottom board. The reducer is made so that the smaller slot could be set to the upper side, allowing the bees to climb over the layer of dead bees on the bottom board to get out.

The board was reversable, with the shallow (3/8") side for use in the summer.

3/8" by 2" is fine for the winter, but I would also leave a similar sized opening at the top of the hive for ventilation. Cold condensation dripping into the cluster is a very bad thing in cold winters.

Any opening that lets the bees get in and out as the wish while being easily defended against robbers and pests is fine. When you have 60,000 bees in a hive with two deeps and four shallow supers, the whole slot a the bottom board may hardly be enough, when you have a newly installed package, an inch is probably all they need.

Acebird is the name of a member of this board with, well, highly individual opinions.

Peter


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## Dale_3rd

Thanks everyone!

You know, I looked at the design after I built the bottom board and said to myself "Hmm, wasn't that cleaver of someone;, making the rails 1-7/8" makes it reversible, 3/8" on one side and 3/4" on the other" but I never even put 2 and 2 together that it was intentional and for dead bees. 

I lernt me somefin nu today.


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## Rick 1456

Just me, I have mine 4 by 1/2all year. Reduce as necessary. JMHO but my experience has been, little to no SHB. Can't say how this plays into the mite game. Unusual for robbing to occur . That is usually nipped quickly an easily by further reduction if it occurs. So far, no ventilation issues.


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## beeware10

3/8 is a little tight for summer. the 3/4 is for summer and the 3/8 is for winter. In the summer the bees need a larger area for ventilation and evaporation. we use a 2 inch entrance with a slatted rack as seen in the comb honey book by killion. there are many opinions but provem methods may work better. good luck.


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## dustinbajer

An entrance of 3/8" (bee space) by 4" seems like a good size to me.

Dr. Thomas Seeley did some experiments in the 90s on the preferences of honeybee colonies when choosing new hives. His research found that they don't much care for entrances larger than 15 square centimetres (~2.3 square inches). I wrote about it on my website.


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## Oldtimer

My hives in summer have an entrance 3/4 of an inch high and open from one end to the other of the front of the box. This is to allow suffeicient ventilation when they are evaporating moisture from summer nectar flow, plus bees getting in and out. I purchased some commercially made bottom boards that had the opening all the way across but are only 3/8ths inch high and the bees noticeably struggle with ventilation on the busy days. So for me anyway, 3/4 inch high is right.

Winter here is mild so entrance reducers are 4 inches across. But where winters are very cold a much smaller entrance may work, that would be a judgement call based on the beekeepers observations in his climate.


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## Michael Bush

Originally the 3/8" side of the reversible bottom was for summer. The 3/4" side was to make room for dead bees in the winter. That was the design criteria. I only have one entrance at the top about 3/8" x 2 1/2".


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## Swarmhunter

You don't have any bottom hole? Not even for ventilation?


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## Robert Holcombe

It is not just the hive's bees who use the entrance. Shrews, mice, skunks are opportunistic and prevention is needed not to mention robbing season and other entrance requirements.


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## Riverderwent

Dale_3rd said:


> Should I go with the 1" entrance?
> 
> Thanks.


I use a bottom entrance that is ⅜" by about 13¾" and an approximately 1" x ⅜" vent in the inner cover (top) 24x7x52 hrs/yr. Keeps rodents out here. Allows bees to control ventilation and not have cooled air flow out the bottom in the summer. Larger openings are harder to defend and unnecessarily stress bees here. We don't have long periods between cleansing flight weather here.


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## Swarmhunter

I was interested whether Micheal Bush has any lower entrances - summer or winter.


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## psm1212

Swarmhunter said:


> I was interested whether Micheal Bush has any lower entrances - summer or winter.


I don't think his website specifically answers your question, but this is a link to his discussion of his use of top entrances:

http://bushfarms.com/beestopentrance.htm


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## Nelsonhoneyfarms

Dale_3rd said:


> I'm wondering about the hive entrance size. I built my Langstroth hives to spec off of plans here, with a 3/8" gap between the bottom board and the hive body, however, I noticed that my friends commercially purchased hives have a ¾" "entrance" gap with a ¾" reducer. The ¾" reducer does have about an inch by 3/8" entrance. Seems to me I read somewhere that you should have about a 3/8"×4" entrance for the summer and reduce it to 3/8"×2" in the winter.
> 
> I might be over thinking this again (have not been able to find out what "acebirdian" means yet) but my plan was to build a reducer to have 2" for winter and 4" for summer but most of the pics I have seen the entrances are much smaller; more in the 1" range.
> 
> Should I go with the 1" entrance?
> 
> Thanks.


I don’t think you should change it from what you have. You won’t notice too much of a difference. My main criteria for entrance height is whether or not I can easily insert a vaporizer with out having to pry up on the hive body. You can reduce the entrance down based on ventilation needs/colony size/robbing tendency as you go through the year based on your area.


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## Michael Bush

>I was interested whether Micheal Bush has any lower entrances - summer or winter. 

None. Unless I need to use an excluder (for queen rearing etc.) then I have no entrance except at the very top. If I have an excluder then I have one somewhere below the excluder to let the drones out.


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