Top bar beehive entrance?

How big should I make the entrance hole on my Hive I was thinkin as big as a wine cork. Also how many entrance holes should there be?

One Response to Top bar beehive entrance?

  1. phoenix2frequent

    Bees like an entrance that is about two bees-width, so they can guard it effectively from raiding wasps, hornets etc. So a wine-cork-width sounds about right.
    In any case, if the bees feel that it’s too large, they will reduce it using propolis – the word propolis translates as “in front of the city” for that very reason: in natural environments like hollow trees, honeybees will construct a defensive wall of propolis to reduce the tree-hole to a manageable entrance size.

    One entrance is best (again, so that the bees can guard their colony easily). Make it at the lower edge of the brood box so it’s accessible to the bees at all seasons of the year, regardless of whether you have supers of honey on the hive or not.

    When you place your hive in position, make sure that the entrance is facing away from the prevailing wind. This will make it easier for your bees to manage the hive temperature and to help foraging bees take-off and land.

    Best of luck from a fellow beekeeper. :)

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