# upper entrance question



## suzyq (Jun 30, 2014)

I have figured a way to create a small upper entrance for my bees for winter. It would be directly under my quilt box and right by the bee food. Would that be to cold for the bees while they are feeding having a small entrance there? It would be 1x1 inch. If I went that route would I still keep the bottom entrance which is also minimal for winter so they can take out dead bees?
Bees started off as a hobby and turned into a passion  Now I finally understand why my dad loved beekeeping.


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## jcolon (Sep 12, 2014)

I'm Leaving a 3/8 by 1on the top. Don't think it be a problem but would like to hear opinions...


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## Hogback Honey (Oct 29, 2013)

It can be done, here is a picture of my hive wrap. I used 1/2" insulation and made a hive "body", then I made a separate lid, just like a telescoping lid, but it has a 4" overhang. The top entrance is protected by that overhang. I've a shim with an entrance cut out in it, then a quilt box, then inner cover then telescoping lid, then insulated lid.


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## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

1x1 is too big IMHO, it will allow mice in. I do 3/8 by 1/2-1 in the winter on my 10 frame Langs and less than that on my nucs. I would leave the bottom one as you said. Skip to minute 1:50 to see the lang. There is 2 inches of insulation under the outer cover.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxjDa6mB_co


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## suzyq (Jun 30, 2014)

Thanks for the photo Hogback. Brilliant idea having the entrance under the overhang! Not sure if I will wrap. Keep hearing about moisture being a problem. Any thoughts to that? Really enjoyed the video Adrian. Always happy to see beekeepers at work. I will definitely shrink my entrance a bit and add a mouse excluder as well. Thinking it will be easier to get snow and ice off entrances by removing mouse excluder and knocking it out so that's a plus.
My first winter with bees so I'm hoping we don't get a Wisconsin repeat of last winter!


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

I have a 1" diameter top entrance/ ventilation hole in the 1.5" feeding rim just below my quilt box. For good part of the winter I cover the hole with a small piece of corrugated cardboard that has a finger-tip sized hole poked through it. The cardboard serves as a windbreak, and the hole is their winter entrance, which for three of four is almost never used. The fourth colony uses it, year-round, as it the main entrance.

When temps are not so fiercely cold in the autumn and the spring I bend the cardboard in a V and attach it so it stands out from the 1" hole to give more frash air.

My bees hang out in the space above the uppermost box and below the quilt box. They munch on their sugar bricks and festoon down from the floor of the QB overhead. I worried I was luring then into breaking cluster and that it could have terrible results. Bees are smart, though, they go up there when it's warmer, but withdraw down into the cluster when they need to.

The little cardboard hole covers were an impromtu solution that I just pushpinned on before a storm last winter. Surprisingly they have stayed on the hive through winter, spring, and summer. (During the summer I leave them pinned down on only the windy side.)

If you're worried about the cold, try my little cardboard covers, they work just fine. To make them I just stick the tip of scissors through the cardboard and then work my little finger through the hole until it is nice and round and just the right size. Then I turn over the cardboard and snip off any ragged edges on the backside. Thumb tacks or pushpins hold them on. They are about 1.5" by 3", with the hole centered. Ordinary brown corrugated cardboard is what I use.

I could post a pic if that would help.

BTW, the hole I am describing is below the quilt box, so it has no role in the function of the QB, which has it's own ventilation holes (two of them 1" in dia. each, and always open throughout the winter) in a shim above it.

ETA: It goes without saying that the hole is also mouse-screened in the winter. That layer is thumb tacked down flat over the hole in the shim.

Enj.


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## Hogback Honey (Oct 29, 2013)

I'd read about moisture being a problem also, but figured I'd try it anyway. Not a lot of humidity where I am, in the winter. I was more worried about the wind, it blows horrendously through here, so figured the insulation on the hive body would really help with the wind. The insulation is not super snug either, so hopefully that little bit of air circulating will help. 

My first winter also!


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## mgolden (Oct 26, 2011)

suzyq said:


> Not sure if I will wrap. Keep hearing about moisture being a problem. Any thoughts to that? /QUOTE]
> 
> Absolutely nothing wrong with wrapping. It serves the purpose of a wind break and provides solar gain on a sunny day.
> 
> ...


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## suzyq (Jun 30, 2014)

Thank you Enjambres I would love to see a pictures of how you did your upper entrance. Love to see people being creative. Thinking I will jimmy rig something like what Hogback is doing and make some type of protection around the entrance. Sort of like an old fashion awnings for a window. You're so lucky you don't have to worry about freezing temperatures! Mgolden thank you for more insight on wrapping hives. I did use tarp to go around fence the bees are in and that should block some wind too. I have view windows in the back of the hive and I want to be able to check from time to time and see how they are doing. Possibly wrap in 3 sections overlapping but using Velcro in the back so I can take it off and take a look through the glass.
Not wanting to go a whole winter just hoping and not knowing.  I really love those little bugs.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

They will haul out the same number of dead bees with just a top entrance as they will with a bottom entrance, which in the winter isn't a lot... but they will haul out some. They will usually not get the bottom cleaned off until there are sufficient bees for the job (later in the spring), with either entrance.


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## mikeca (Nov 4, 2014)

Michael, I tried to follow your upper entrance advice by plugging up the bottom entrance, then I turned the inner cover upside down to create an upper entrance and replaced the outer cover on top of that. Today it's 62 degrees here in Ohio, and I would expect to see some bees coming and going, but it seems they haven't figured their way out. The few that did find their way out were walking around the plugged-up lower entrance, apparently unable to figure their way back in. The hive is currently made up of five mediums because it's my first year and I didn't know how much honey to leave. Do you think the bees are too far down in the hive to figure their way out of the top entrance? Or should I wait it out and let them figure it out eventually?

Thanks!
Mike


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

Mine are presently equipped with quilt boxes (screened with #8 hardware cloth), with a conventional inside top cover and telescoping cover above that. The inside top cover has 3 34" x 3/8" notches for ventilation. So mine are not really entrances but vents.

Do these really need to be entrances, or is ventilation enough? I could add a bee tunnel past the quilt boxes if it needs to be an escape. I'm planning to use upside down small entrances on the reducers for the winter, to reduce the blockage problem.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

On cold nights I want to make sure they all find their way back in... When converting, I would start by adding the top entrance. After a couple of days, reduce the bottom entrance to a 3/8" hole. Then on a day when a warm night is expected close off the bottom entrance completely. This does not work well with a screened bottom that is open, so I would put in a tray or something. Otherwise the lost bees end up clustered on the bottom.


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## suzyq (Jun 30, 2014)

Here's a question for you. I made a reduced upper entrance for my bees on a beautiful 58 degree day and bees were flying. They got curious and for awhile they were allowed in through the upper entrance. After a short while the bees inside the entrance fought any of them that wanted in so I added a screen behind the entrance that day to use for ventilation. Today I opened it up again for the bees to use and sure enough after awhile they weren't letting any in. It's right by the candy sugar, are they being protective of it? I will make sure my bottom entrance which is reduced doesn't get blocked by snow so should I just keep that entrance above screened in or try again later in winter when less bees are out and flying?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

It sounds like robbers are testing their defenses and they are standing up to them.


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## Cottonwood (Apr 16, 2013)

Here are a couple of photos from my configuration for last winter. Both of these hives over wintered very well through the long and very cold winter we had last year. Here is the configuration I experimented with.
Four 10 frame mediums over a closed off screened bottom board. Next a 3 inch feed shim with a 1/2 inch entrance hole drilled in the front on a 30 degree angle sloping down to reduce wind and water entering the hive. I placed a 3/4 inch sheet of hard candy inside the feeder shim covering 90% of the frames. Next was a standard inner cover with the hole in the center. On top of that I placed a medium hive body with 2 three inch vent holes. Vent holes were located one in front and one in back in opposite sides. I used soffit vents for this. I also added 2 inch rigid insulation on the sides and top of this box. A standard telescoping cover was placed on top. The hive bodies and feed ring was covered with a sleeve of 2 inch rigid insulation. 

Moisture was not a problem and in early March ( the day the above photos were taken) the bees were in the feeder ring area working the sugar block. 

I plan on utilizing the same system this year and am hoping I get the same results.


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