Honey/queen excluder and upper entrance

[mat]

Fallowing Michael's referal to the article about Hopkins methode of queen rearing (great) I red another article at the same site.
http://www.beesource.com/pov/hayes/abjaug85.htm
Very good article. I suppose all of us use eather kind of hives, what are your opinions? It looks like upper entrance is realy good thing. But thinking about the ventilation shouldn't we more ventilate the top of the hive. We use screened bottoms, but wouldn't be sreened inner cover and the outer one better?

[Michael Bush]

I have screened bottom boards and top entrances and it works out great for me.  But I also have no excluders.  No bottom entrance with an excluder is a disaster because the drones can't get through an excluder either and they all die in the hive.

[oldwalt]

MB;  I was thinking of setting up my hives ( for comb honey) just like the "link" described in Mat's post with the addition of a drilled hole in the upper deep just below the queen excluder to solve the drone disaster problem. Do you think that is a viable solution ?  I really enjoy reading your post. This is my first post but I have been lurking in the shadows reading all the post for the last year and I have learned a lot from them....

oldwalt

[Michael Bush]

I like top entrances.  Actually I like not having bottom entrances and not having honey excluders... I mean queen excluders.   But I don't like drilling holes in my boxes.  It's easy enough to rig entrances without drilling holes.  Notches in inner covers, imirie shims, propped up inner covers (with shingle shims) etc.