lets talk about/robing-entrance reducers-congestion at the entrance

[adamant]

lost a hive to robing . here is a pic of a frame thats been robed!
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/805/img2012071100281.jpg/

i dint want to loose another hive to robing.
as a new beekeeper how can i prevent this?
i put on entrance reducers bot how far do i close it off? i have about a 3'' opening but there is always a small beard on the entrance plus it seems that there is  some congestion.

[Wolfer]

IMO if the bees can plug the hole your usually ok. I keep mine to where the bees have to work through each other coming and going. Lost a couple hives last year to robbers but one hive right in the middle of the fray just ganged up and pluged the hole. Lots of fighting on the front porch but no bees got in. I've been really cautious this year with my opening size.

[adamant]

IMO if the bees can plug the hole your usually ok. I keep mine to where the bees have to work through each other coming and going. Lost a couple hives last year to robbers but one hive right in the middle of the fray just ganged up and pluged the hole. Lots of fighting on the front porch but no bees got in. I've been really cautious this year with my opening size.

how wide is your entrance?

[BlueBee]

I have hives with entrances from 12mm x 9mm bee width to hives with entrances about 15 inches long x 9mm high.  The bigger the hive, the wider the entrance I use.  I don’t worry too much about bearding in this hot weather; it’s natural.  I have lost 1 nuc this summer that oddly enough had about a 3” wide bottom entrance.  It was robbed out, but I’m not sure if the robbing occurred before or after colony was lost.  I didn’t see robbing, but I don’t look everyday and robbers can kill a colony quickly.

I think the best solution is to move small/weak colonies away from your strong ones.  If that isn’t possible then I would not hesitate to narrow down the entrance to 1” wide or less.  Just keep narrowing until you see the problem subside.  If you’ve got a ton of bees bearding around a smaller entrance, it certainly makes it harder for wax moths to get in and probably makes it harder to robbers to navigate too.

[Nature Coast Beek]

All my nucs that have attached solid bottom boards (Coats style 5 framers) have entrances that are 3 bees wide. Around here I've got ants and SHB as well as possible robbing issues. It's worked very well thus far.