# Corner entrance ("diagonal" way)



## garbeam (Jun 21, 2016)

Hi there,

I'm in the process of building a new TBH hive. I came up with an idea to place the entrance at a corner location, just for the reason that I have observed a couple of reports that bees like building combs at 45° angles towards the entrance hole, when they are allowed to.









In contrast to "warm way" or "cold way" arrangements, I would consider this "diagonal" way.

What do you think about this, what will happen in your impression? Worth an experiment or do you expect the bees propolizing one side off?

I would cut 10mm x 70mm each direction leaving a gap on top of the bottom board.

Best regards,
garbeam


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## bibbster (Jun 10, 2016)

Very interesting concept, garbeam!

While I have zero experience with your plan, in many youtube videos that I have watched of beehive removals, bees do, in fact, like to build at what looks to be 45° to the entrance. It is definitely something that sounds like a good experiment. Seems the worst that can happen is that you have some cross combing and/or comb attachment to deal with.

I say go for it!


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## AugustC (Aug 7, 2013)

Give it a try be all means and let us know but I think it is a little overengineered solution to a problem that doesn't really exist.


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## Chuck Jachens (Feb 22, 2016)

I see a couple of drawbacks. First from an engineering (I is one) standpoint, it will make that corner weaker than if it was on the end or just the side. 2nd, that corner of the bottom board will rot/wear away making the opening larger. 3rd, a mouse will have an easier time to chew its way in. 4th, it will be exposed to a larger angle of the elements (180 vs 270 degrees).

It may work out for you so go for it.


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## Steve56Ace (Sep 5, 2014)

Guess the key words are "when allowed to". 
Like them turning the comb ends towards the entrance it's about ventilation. I favor the 3/4" end slot for that reason. I give them a nice landing board too, but that's me. 
And depending on location, Chuck's mouse warning sounds valid. Consider all your entrance reducer needs and requirements. 

I'm confident the girls will make it work. Good luck and send pics.


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## garbeam (Jun 21, 2016)

Chuck Jachens said:


> I see a couple of drawbacks. First from an engineering (I is one) standpoint, it will make that corner weaker than if it was on the end or just the side. 2nd, that corner of the bottom board will rot/wear away making the opening larger. 3rd, a mouse will have an easier time to chew its way in. 4th, it will be exposed to a larger angle of the elements (180 vs 270 degrees).
> 
> It may work out for you so go for it.


I also see your concerns, except the mouse entrance as my suggested height of 1cm is about 3,8" which can be considered safe against mice.

Some additional advantages I see in the meantime (apart from initial motivation to test the 45° angle towards the combs):

- if the entrance hole is 7cm (2.75") to each outfacing sides, the inner diameter is roughly 10cm (approx. 4") only, hence less area/space to defend for the guards.
- the 270° opening angle provides an "inner" landing board
- if the hive entrance is south-east or south-west facing, the sun stimulation might last longer, hence the bees might start the forage earlier in the morning until later in the afternoon (could be wrong on this, will see).

I will post some pictures soon of this hive as it is not yet fully finished. In the meantime I have made some pictures of my basic prototype hive here:

https://goo.gl/photos/bGaH7uiiKa7XMbHg6 

(I added some comments to the pictures as well). I see the corner entrance experiment as addition to my basic prototype concept, so the end sheets will be removable as in my basic prototype.

-garbeam


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## garbeam (Jun 21, 2016)

Here is the corner entrance on my next in the finishing phase:

https://goo.gl/photos/wjPVs5cKKYLVPiSX9

-garbeam


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## Nordak (Jun 17, 2016)

Looks good. My concern from a design aspect is your hive stand. Not sure if it's up to the challenge in regard to weight and high winds, but there may be something to it I'm not seeing.


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## Chuck Jachens (Feb 22, 2016)

Looks nice, I see the mouse problem is taken care of. In my yards the stray horse might be knock them over.


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## garbeam (Jun 21, 2016)

I forgot to mention, the hive stand is not final yet. So please ignore that


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## psycoreefer (May 31, 2017)

Do you have any result of trying this - I've been thinking of the exact same thing but will save myself the trouble if you've already tested the idea.


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## garbeam (Jun 21, 2016)

psycoreefer said:


> Do you have any result of trying this - I've been thinking of the exact same thing but will save myself the trouble if you've already tested the idea.


It's too early to judge. I put a swarm May 23 into this corner entrance hive and so far no real difference to either warm or cold way entrances.

-garbeam


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## Yunzow (Mar 16, 2017)

Dear Garbeam,

I think this is an interesting idea! Ironically I had a big freak out when I had a corner entrance to begin with and I made an effort to turn it into a center entrance.

How I ended up with a corner entrance in the first place you might want to consider because it was considerably easier than what you are doing.

I used the hive design Michael Bush has on his website, which is an upper entrance, which is basically the gap between the first bar and the front of the hive, which looks like a long slot entrance.

Early on, I realized I might want to reduce the size of that entrance, so I took an appropriate length piece of wood and placed it over the slot, leaving just the last inch of the slot uncovered near the left side. Hence an upper corner entrance.

It vexed me early on because all the bees had clustered on the opposite side (right) of the hive wall, so eventually turned that one corner entrance into three entrance, two on each corner and one in the middle. I dunno if it really mattered or not!

Let me know how your experiment goes!

-Thomas


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## psycoreefer (May 31, 2017)

garbeam said:


> It's too early to judge. I put a swarm May 23 into this corner entrance hive and so far no real difference to either warm or cold way entrances.
> 
> -garbeam


Bummer - when I noticed that this thread was started nearly a year ago I was hoping you'd put bees into it last summer and might have some thoughts on how it was working out. I'll probably be building my first 2 boxes sometime in July.....


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## AvatarDad (Mar 31, 2016)

I've done a variation on this not for any reason other than simplicity of wood working. I wanted a side entrance, and cut it with a bandsaw rather than a router, so my entrance has 3 inches on the side and 3/4th inch on the end. (So, an asymmetrical version of the entrance above).

the bees don't care. I have other hives where I blocked the side, and there is no difference in how they use the hive. the only problem I had was when I tried to install a robber screen; the weird geometry made it difficult to craft one (lots of bending and lots of staples fixed it up, but it was a pain to do). I do think this arrangement is a little harder for the bees to guard (robbers can slip in the side, I think).


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