It's definitely novel, Joe. What's the intended purpose?
Thanks to all who replied.Caticind, I've no idea whether or not it's a good idea, but it's the way the hives are fixed now, so I hope the bees like it. Mainly, I'm just following suggestions that I've read here and on another bee forum; those being to put the entrance high so that the bees can remove heat and moisture faster/easier. The cover over the entrance and the out-of-sight, half-inch tunnel going up to the actual ten-inch-entrance slot should (hopefully) help the bees fight off wasps, moths, other bees, etc.
Now watch next spring when I put in a package of bees w/queen and they abscond because of a dumb ass entrance.
"The best laid plans of mice and men go oft' awry."
Ok, so the bees will be able to find the entrance easily by scent and habituation. This will not confuse them.
Invaders will use scent alone to attempt to find the hive. That's why on my hives which have fully screened bottoms, wasps always go for the bottom of the hive first and have trouble finding the actual entrances though they are in plain sight. They should have no more trouble finding it than the bees.
Defensibility is related to the area of the entrance rather than either dimension, so I don't know that this long, narrow entrance (3.75 square inches) will actually be much better than say a 1"x3.75" square entrance. It might be slightly more defensible due to narrowness but require a larger defensive force to cover the whole opening. If you want to make the hive more defensible by reducing the entrance you will actually have to make it smaller in area.
Overall I think you will notice little difference because you are working on visual principles (if they can't see the entrances...) while the insects in question rely fairly little on vision to find the way into the hive. Your design does not seem harmful to me but is probably a lot of trouble for not much benefit.
