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  • Honeybee pests and diseases.
Honeybee pests and diseases.
 #4409  by Japey Edge
 09 Aug 2019, 11:24
Chrisbarlow wrote:
08 Aug 2019, 17:30
Ive got all colonies down to small entrances now with duct tape. The amount of wasps at my various apiaries is impressive
Is there a balance between reducing enough to defend against wasps, and keeping it big enough so as to reduce traffic?
 #4410  by Patrick
 09 Aug 2019, 12:43
Japey Edge wrote:
09 Aug 2019, 11:24
Chrisbarlow wrote:
08 Aug 2019, 17:30
Ive got all colonies down to small entrances now with duct tape. The amount of wasps at my various apiaries is impressive
Is there a balance between reducing enough to defend against wasps, and keeping it big enough so as to reduce traffic?
Surprisingly simple answer is actually no.

I have kept out of this topic as I have posted my views on wasps before and personally see them as a non-issue for beekeeepers keeping normal full size colonies if you run on small entrances all year round. It also hugely reduces the risks of robbing by other colonies which I suspect is a very unrecognised issue for many beekeepers.

Put simply, in my experience if you have a small entrance fitted all year round you should not have problems with wasps or robber bees. Fitting small entrances only after you happened to have noticed the wasp gaining unimpeded access is simply too late. Standard hive entrances 17 inches long and maybe an inch high wildly over provide entry needs for most colonies. Feral colonies often choose sites with little more than a knothole entrance and may propolise up the space to only a few bee widths.

Keeping a busy entrance which is easy for the guard bees to oversee is a pleasure to see and I really don't think a few seconds delay while they mill around to be checked over and allowed in in any way significantly reduces the honey crop. All my hives including double brood run on entrances about an inch wide and about half an inch high and I haven't lost a healthy colony to wasps for over 15 years that I can recall. I don't trap wasps and my bees are in orchards full of fallen fruit and abundant wasps.

Mini nucs and nucleus colonies have fewer bees and possibly un-balanced populations so may need even smaller entrances. Certainly the normal size entrances as provided by manufacturers seem to take little account of the needs and apparent preferences of bees themselves, Don't think you will compromise the bees by reducing entrances.
 #4411  by Japey Edge
 09 Aug 2019, 12:57
Patrick wrote:
09 Aug 2019, 12:43

Surprisingly simple answer is actually no.

I have kept out of this topic as I have posted my views on wasps before and personally see them as a non-issue for beekeeepers keeping normal full size colonies if you run on small entrances all year round. It also hugely reduces the risks of robbing by other colonies which I suspect is a very unrecognised issue for many beekeepers.

Put simply, in my experience if you have a small entrance fitted all year round you should not have problems with wasps or robber bees. Fitting small entrances only after you happened to have noticed the wasp gaining unimpeded access is simply too late. Standard hive entrances 17 inches long and maybe an inch high wildly over provide entry needs for most colonies. Feral colonies often choose sites with little more than a knothole entrance and may propolise up the space to only a few bee widths.

Keeping a busy entrance which is easy for the guard bees to oversee is a pleasure to see and I really don't think a few seconds delay while they mill around to be checked over and allowed in in any way significantly reduces the honey crop. All my hives including double brood run on entrances about an inch wide and about half an inch high and I haven't lost a healthy colony to wasps for over 15 years that I can recall. I don't trap wasps and my bees are in orchards full of fallen fruit and abundant wasps.

Mini nucs and nucleus colonies have fewer bees and possibly un-balanced populations so may need even smaller entrances. Certainly the normal size entrances as provided by manufacturers seem to take little account of the needs and apparent preferences of bees themselves, Don't think you will compromise the bees by reducing entrances.
Well I'm glad you decided to join the conversation because I found your post very interesting and, after my experience this year, I may be inclined to do the same. I am thinking of making a tunnel insert to sit on the Abelo landing board - inspired by a guy on another forum. The Abelo floor looks like it can cater for a few wacky designs. Might blow the dust off my 3D printer... Hmmmm
 #4413  by AdamD
 09 Aug 2019, 13:14
It's generally mini-nucs that suffer from wasps. Well-packed ones should be OK. I have a Warnholtz mini-nuc that got robbed out by wasps a few years ago. It has a bottom entrance as well as the front one. Wasps got in by chewing around the bottom entrance without me seeing it. I haven't yet understood why one would be needed.

If wasps are getting in, then it's time to move the mini-nuc away as the small will not survive a continual attack.

And like Patrick, I don't get the need for a hive entrance 17" wide. How can that be defended? I have double brood colonies (14 - 20 frames of brood in the height of summer) with a bunch of supers on top and a 1/2 inch x 6 - 8 inch wide entrance without problems.
 #4418  by Caroline
 09 Aug 2019, 15:37
I concur with Adam and Patrick, I run reduced entrances all the time. No problems.
 #4423  by NigelP
 09 Aug 2019, 16:10
No disrespect for you reduced entrance guys and gals but I run full open entrances until late autumn when I start feeding. Even in this current early summer of waspageddon they are all fine. The only colonies that get reduced entrances are a few of the newly promoted to full beehive nucs. ...and as circumstances would dictate.... out of 2 in an out apiary that I forgot to reduce one has been cleaned out by wasps already. My own fault.....I guess if I only ran reduced entrances all year round then it would have never happened... :o
 #4424  by Patrick
 09 Aug 2019, 16:21
NigelP wrote:
09 Aug 2019, 16:10
My own fault.....I guess if I only ran reduced entrances all year round then it would have never happened... :o
Well you said it!! 😂😂
 #4426  by NigelP
 09 Aug 2019, 16:49
I hate watching the long queues to get in and out at busy periods....time and motion.
 #4427  by Chrisbarlow
 09 Aug 2019, 17:02
I agree about queues but if I left boxes on full entrances in some apiaries I wouldn't have any bees left.