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.
