The Oval hole in my Inner Cover

[Jackam]

What is this for, except maybe to be used as a hand hold?
My bees went up between the inner cover and the telescoping cover and built a bunch of comb last May. I scraoed it clean and placed a piece of cardboard over the hole to keep them busy where they need to be busy.

Does this oval slot have any purpose?

[Moots]

My understanding is that if you don't allow your bees access to that space you are inviting trouble...It can be overrun by ants or other problem critters if the bees can't police it.

[sc-bee]

My understanding is a bee escape will fit the oval hole but I have never used one. Also folks invert a feeder over the hole and put an empty super box around the feeder with a top on it to protect or enclose the feeder.

[Finski]

I have 1x5 cm hole in inner coves. It is handy when I want the bees go themselves inside the hive from empty box, it is cold and i cannot shake bees in front of hive,

In cold weather (spring) I may put an empty box above then inner cover. I shake bees into the box and bees go to the hive via hole.

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[Michael Bush]

The hole is to allow ventilation to occur but be controlled.  Also to allow you to smoke the top of the hive before opening.  The SHAPE is to fit a porter bee escape.  When I was using inner covers, I made mine with a round hole the size of a canning jar for feeding and put screen wire over it so I can change the jar without facing any bees.  That way I could refill feeders without even putting on a veil.

http://bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm#inverted
http://bushfarms.com/images/JarFeeder.jpg
http://bushfarms.com/images/OverwinteringNucs3.jpg

[capt44]

When I build inner covers I also drill a 2 3/4 inch hole, the size of a jar lid.
But I put the hole off center so if the jar happens to lose suction the liquid won't drain on the cluster but down the outside of the bees.

[Kathyp]

i put feeding jars over mine.  most of mine have round holes.

your inner cover should have a deep and a shallow side.  i put mine deep side down during the summer, but in the winter, i turn them the other way and dump sugar over the inner cover. 
a lot of people say that sugar must be put over the frames, but because we are so wet, i have not had good luck with that.  it gets to  wet sometimes and is a mess.  the sugar is only for emergencies anyway, so if they break cluster unexpectedly and need extra food, they do make it up there.  + it absorbs moisture and that's a good thing in Oregon!!

[dfizer]

When I was using inner covers...

Does this implication mean you don't use inner covers any longer?  Please help me understand this I'm truly interested!

David

[robk23678]

I actually ordered 2 of the escapes with my last supply order. They were supposed to fit the inner cover I ordered, however they don't fit quite right in the oval hole, i think. It fits real loose. I'd be concerned that they could push this out of the way. Am I wrong, or are they supposed to just sit in the hole without be "attached" to the inner cover somehow?

Again, if they sent me the wrong inner cover, it wouldn't surprise me. The original order arrived without the inner cover at all, it wasn't even included, then took an additional 2 weeks for them to get the inner cover to me.

[Finski]

Does this implication mean you don't use inner covers any longer?  Please help me understand this I'm truly interested!

David

Inner cover is used 365 days in a year, every hour. To use the hole, perhaps 2 hours a year.

I do not use hole as venting. It tooks the heat control totally off from bees.
I use upper entrances 15 mm in boxes but they are not open in supers.

.

[BlueBee]

Like most things Bees, nothing is absolute.  I haven't used an inner cover since my first deep hive.  I don't see any advantage to them.  In most cases I now use a sheet of plastic (couple mils thick clear plastic) for the inner cover; like the Germans. X:X  Works great and you can peek in on the bees in the winter.  Oops, don't tell Finski I watch the bees in the winter.  I think that's another one of his no-nos. :shock:

BTW...an upper entrance of 15mm doesn't sound like the best design if you want to let the bees regulate hive temperatures.  My entrances/vents are only 9mm high.  That size allows a bee to better regulate the flow of air in the hive since a single bee's body can plug the gap when they want more heat.  A side benefit to 9mm entrances/vents, is I don't raise mice inside my hives in the winter. :laugh:

[Finski]

Like most things Bees, nothing is absolute.

That formula I do not understand= most nothing

I haven't used an inner cover since my first deep hive.  

Perhaps you did not understood what you are doing.
When bees build burr between inner copver and frames, beekeepers use plastic that burr does not ghlue cover permanently to frames.


In modern polyhives inner covder and rain cover is the same thing.
That is why.

I do my rain cover and inner coves my self and I use recycled material. I get from capital city high quality board from recycling heaps. Wood is easy to keep clean with butan frlame.

 Oops, don't tell Finski I watch the bees in the winter.  

Weaky weaky, quess who is here. Dad brings you something sweet!!

(Good Lord!. What heck you are stirring there?)

A side benefit to 9mm entrances/vents, is I don't raise mice inside my hives in the winter. :laugh:

Oh Sh*, I had 10 mm
.

[Finski]

.
I have just put in condition  15 poly mating hives.
They have only polystyne board as cover. Not even plastic sheet.


Even if you are a beekeeper, try to use your brains.

Bad thing is that if wood pecker notive the drone larvae in ground, it sometimes realize that they are from polyhives and it starts to make holes even in summer. That is what I am repairing in my poly mating nucs.

[Michael Bush]

>Does this implication mean you don't use inner covers any longer?

No, I don't.

> Please help me understand this I'm truly interested!

There have always been two standard forms of covers.  Migratory, which uses no inner cover, and Telescopic, which does use an inner cover.  Migratory is cheaper and has less pieces to mess with.  But the main advantage is you can put hives right against each other.  Telescopic is, in theory, more weatherproof and because of the airspace between the inner and outer, has less condensation.

http://bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#innercover

Due to skunks I went to top entrances so I make a modified version of the migratory cover:

http://bushfarms.com/beestopentrance.htm
http://bushfarms.com/images/TopOnHive2.jpg

[Finski]

I use rain covers upside down as landing   bottoms when I lift boxes from hives.

[Kathyp]

but, there are people (like me) who use inner covers with migratory tops.  i do it because of our weather for the most part, but also because they are handy for jar feeding and for either holding or covering dry sugar in the winter. 

[Moots]

but, there are people (like me) who use inner covers with migratory tops.  i do it because of our weather for the most part, but also because they are handy for jar feeding and for either holding or covering dry sugar in the winter. 

For whatever it's worth, add me to this list.  :)

Built me three telescoping tops when I initially got started.  Grew quickly beyond that and didn't have the time to build, or see the justification in continuing to use Telescoping over migratory tops.  However, I still like using inner covers, I just recently made 5 more to finish equipping all my hives with them.  I use ventilated inner covers to help combat the South Louisiana heat and I also give them a top entrance via the inner cover. 

I know many will say you can accomplish all this by simple shimming your migratory top, which you can...But I think the inner cover provides better protection from the weather when it starts raining sideways.  Also, as Kathy mentioned, it offers some nice options should you need to feed the hive.

[tandemrx]

hijacked thread, but I will add another function of the inner cover (not the hole, I think that has been covered sufficiently, bee escape shape if you use one, allows bees to police to get rid of ants and such, allows smoking, feeding port, etc).

But in terms of just function of inner cover itself, I find it handy when using a telescoping cover because the bees tend to cement down whatever is covering the hive. If you just use a telescoping cover, then they propolis this down and it can be pretty tough to remove without some way to get a hive tool between tele cover and top box.  With an inner cover they tend to now propolis down the tele cover to the inner cover, so you can remove tele cover easily, then you have access to jam a hive tool between inner cover and top box.

FWIW.