More observations of the hives

[Understudy]

I did another combine recently from a cut out to my hive. The thing I am discovering is when I do a cut out, bees die. Lots of them. You need to make sure you have a bottom opening for them to flush out the dead bees. I still like top entrances but right after a cut out bees need to move out the dead and with the vast number they are more inclined to let them pile up at the bottom they take them out of the top. If there is a bottom opening they almost do a bulldozer like push out of the dead bees.

I believe that this is because the hive is in a weakened state. If it was a strong hive it probably would not be an issue. none of my strong hives have bodies piled on the bottom.

On to the next item. I have been leaving a very small opening on the bottom of the hive per the request of my bee inspector. It also has helped with something else, less reorientation time. When I do a newspaper combine I effectively close off the top entrance until the bees have chewed through the newspaper, which takes about three days. Since the bottom opening is there I noticed the lower hive had lots of traffic with no real orientation flights taking place.

What I did notice was some small conflicts at the top entrance. where I assume some of the bees from the lower hive had tried to enter in through the top entrance. The bees at the top were trying to protect the hive. The fights were not many not like a robbing. And since the bees that were trying to come in had nectar and pollen eventually most of them appeared to make it into the top hive.

There were bees that also flew back to the bottom entrance. So I don't think the bottom hive will end up deprived.

My end result:
I love top entrance hives, but I will leave a small opening on the bottom for the possiblity of a hive combine. I however keep my hive bottoms at least 16" above the ground.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Michael Bush]

I haven't tried it, and I have my reservations about it, but Betterbee uses #6 hardware cloth for the bottom board.  Bees have difficulty getting through it, but bee parts tend to fall through and the housekeepers can shove the bodies through.

But all in all, you find dead bodies on the bottom of any hive in the spring, regardless of the entrance configuration.  Once the population build up where there are housekeepers to spare they usually get it cleaned up.

[Understudy]

I haven't tried it, and I have my reservations about it, but Betterbee uses #6 hardware cloth for the bottom board.  Bees have difficulty getting through it, but bee parts tend to fall through and the housekeepers can shove the bodies through.

But all in all, you find dead bodies on the bottom of any hive in the spring, regardless of the entrance configuration.  Once the population build up where there are housekeepers to spare they usually get it cleaned up.

I do not see dead bodies in the bottom of hives any time of year. I use screened bottom boards. This situation is mainly to deal with cut out's. Bees get massacred in cut outs (at least in mine they do). A cut out puts a hive into a weakend state.
The bodies of the dead bees literally pile up on the bottom. There are whole bee bodies at the bottom, those will not fall through the screen bottom boards I buy from Dadant or Mann Lake. I have not tried the one's you mentioned.

However even in a weakend state bees want a clean hive. The dead bee bodies attract pests. Such as ants, shiny beetles, and others. If the bees cannot push out those bodies. The pests can ruin a weak colony. Once the bodies have been pushed out I will put on an entrance reducer to it's smallest opening.

Also if the queen dies in a cut out bees can end up in a confused state my guessing is that would also contribute to a issue with dead bee removal.

I believe that having the tinest opening on the bottom year round does not create any issues for me. When I do the combine it was nice to see the bottom hive bees not having to do a massive reorientation.

If there other suggestions please share them.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Kathyp]

i'm glad to hear about the dead bees.  after that barn thing, i had dead bees everywhere.  i felt bad because i had killed a lot getting them out of the barn, and thought i must have messed up at home to have so many die.  + i didn't get to leave a box behind to catch strays, although i don't think there were to many flying, due to the weather.

now i feel a bit better.  less like a bee murderer  :-)

[Kathyp]

and....i did the top and bottom opening as you described.  i didn't know what else to do, since i had combined the two hives.  you are right, it did seem to work well.  even though they have not been out much, they did seem to figure it out fairly quickly, and did start cleaning out the dead ones on the odd warm moment.