Hive Entrance
Lexikon
The entrance to the hive and at the same time the window through which a colony can be assessed without opening it.
The entrance to the hive and at the same time the window through which a colony can be assessed without opening it.
Its size is adapted to the season: wide in summer for flight traffic and air exchange, narrow in autumn and winter against robbing and mice. Suitable mouse protection is an entrance reducer with a gap height of at most about six millimeters or a spot-welded mouse guard with a mesh size of around six millimeters. Both let bees through and keep field mice and shrews out.
Anyone who stops in front of it can see a lot: bees with pollen loads indicate open brood and a queen being present, fighting bees indicate robbing, crippled bees indicate Varroa damage.
Sources (4)
- Bayerische Landesanstalt für Weinbau und Gartenbau, Fachzentrum Bienen: Herbst- und Winterarbeiten (Fluglochkeil maximal 6 mm Höhe, Mäusegitter 8 mm Maschenweite)
- Bayerische Landesanstalt für Weinbau und Gartenbau, Fachzentrum Bienen: Volkskontrolle, Fluglochbeobachtung
- bienen&natur: Bienenvölker winterfest machen, Schutz vor Specht, Maus und Sturm
- Die Honigmacher: Herbst, Schutz der Völker (Fluglochkeil gegen Räuberei, Mäusegitter)