I recently heard from a beek that having holes in the sides or front of your supers greatly increased the air flow through the hive allowing the honey to be dried quicker and help stop the bees from bearding thus increasing the overall honey harvest.
What do yal think of this and for those of yal that do this what size holes and how many do you reccomend? Thank's, Brad
Try searching 'top entrances' :)
(not blowing you off; just not qualified to answer)
I've read a few comments on holes in the supers. Placement, shims with screened holes, size of holes. Comments in favor and against. Obviously many of the experiences are involve the locality; that is, the local climate.
I use both bottom and top entrances. Due to my limited time keeping bees, three Winters, I don't feel qualified to say this is good or bad.
I love "upper entrances" to which you are describing. I do not like top entrances, which normally involve those who use these top entrances to replace bottom entrances. Top entrances, and adding additional upper entrances in conjunction with supering is two different thing.
If your colony is strong enough to have supers, they are strong enough for additional upper entrances. For those using queen excluders, providing an entrance above the excluder is also very beneficial.
On this page (left side) is a two queen system that can be seen with holes in the supers.
http://www.bjornapiaries.com/uniquebeekeeping.html (http://www.bjornapiaries.com/uniquebeekeeping.html)
And I added some comments about queen excluders and the use of upper entrances on this page. http://www.bjornapiaries.com/equipmentmanagement.html (http://www.bjornapiaries.com/equipmentmanagement.html)
The benefits of upper entrances can be for increased ventilation, lowering the number of bees going through the brood chamber (swarming issues), and to include keeping larvae out of the supers by use of an excluder being used more effectively, among other things.
We manage (or hope too) colonies into much larger numbers than what they normally would do on their own. We supers, expand the brood chamber, rotate boxes, etc. So it would just reason that we might help them out with additional ventilation and entrances, during peak number times of the years. as we take off supers and the bees decline throughout the summer, then we remove additional upper entrances. It is all part of a system.
A 3/4 inch is fine. I also use 1/2 many times. The bees will make it work.
I have both top and bottom entrances. I also just offset the super an inch leaving a quarter inch gap when population and weather warrants it. It all depends on whats going on with weather and population.
When I kept bees back in the 1980s I used an upper entrance about 3/4 inch wide on my honey supers, mainly so the foragers wouldn't have to to travel all the way back down to the bottom entrance to get back to foraging after they had dropped off their loads. Thought of it as a time saver/production increaser.
Drilling holes in your suppers for ventilation or traffic control seems to be a bit out of favor these days. People with all standardized equipment don't like having some boxes with holes in them and some without; kind of defeats the interchangeability premise, although it is easy enough to plug up the hole with duct tape or cork if you need a brood box. If ventilation is what you are after in the heat of the summer, an off set is the easiest way to get extra air flow, making sure it is not too wide so as to encourage robbing or let in too much rain (if you are lucky enough to get rain in July or August).
I once had a very strong hive at a remote yard. Since the flow was on and it was booming I put several supers on it. One was purchased from a retired beekeeper and had a vent in it. That hive boomed even more over the season. When I robbed the supers I found a swarm had moved into my supers through the vent hole. I took many stings until I realized that they had brood in a lower super and that I could not drive them down anymore. From that experience I learned that top supering is for me as well as vents in supers are not. I also learned that it is possible for two unrelated queens to live in the same hive despite what some experts may say. All beekeping, like politics, is local. What works for others may not work for you. You will just have to figure out what works best for you in your locale. That's part of the enjoyment of keeping bees for me.
Not every aspect of bee keeping is local. Take the advice these people offer and try what seems appropriate. The benefits of an upper entrance( not necessarily the top) when a strong flow is on is advantageous. It keeps the bees from crawling through the brood nest to deposit the nectar in the supers.
If a robbing situation develops because of it,close of the extra holes.
A lot of beeks do not like to drill holes in their nice wood boxes. As stated the production of a strong hive with direct access to the super will help with or without using a excluder. If you look inside to see where a drilling would put you in the gap between two frames, to one side or other of the hand holds and drilling up on a slight angle with a 3/4 bit is what I do to all supers. You can put some corks in the boxes as they are full so not to many entrances to defend.
I was just over at a friend house who had some extra entrances on his supers. My question is do y'all us nails or maybe #4 hardware cloth to keep mice or birds out em? Or just cork it up when done?
I hate holes in my equipment...
Quote from: jaseemtp on March 10, 2012, 11:06:26 PM
I was just over at a friend house who had some extra entrances on his supers. My question is do y'all us nails or maybe #4 hardware cloth to keep mice or birds out em? Or just cork it up when done?
"When done" means after the supers come off, and the holes have served their purpose. So after extraction and the bees cleaned out the wet supers, I stack them up, plug the holes with a wad of toilet paper, and that is it.
The upper hole I have on the top brood box of the remaining active hive is sometimes closed off by the bees, and sometimes not. Mice never use thisupper hole as an entry point for a properly managed hive where bees are able to defend what they have. And in colder weather, if any mice do find their way in, it is almost always from a bottom entrance that was not properly prepared for winter. (reducer, etc.) I would venture to say that 95% of the mice that I find in hives are from dead-out hives that have not been properly closed up. Active, strong populated hives going through winter normally do not have mice issues.
I have made 3 -4" tall boxes that I've drilled 2" holes, stapled screens on them, and put those on top of the supers, under the top cover, and use that for ventilation during the summer months
I don't drill holes in my equipment, I use top entrances instead. I use an entrance reducer I make that fits my top entrances to controll ventilation. I can open up and close the size of the entrance very easily. I believe I am utilizing the best configuration available.
I made shims with 3/4 inch holes. You can put them on or take them off when needed. They seem to work well for me.
DM