ENTRANCES TO HIVES 
301 
SIZE OF SUMMER ENTRANCE. 
The proper size of entrance depends on 
the location, season of the year, size of 
colony, amount of protection, and whether 
the bees are wintered indoors or out. Dur¬ 
ing the height of the honey flow the aper¬ 
ture should be as large as the bottom-board 
or hive will permit—not less than % inch 
deep by the width of the hive. If too 
small there will be insufficient ventilation, 
causing loafing and clustering on the front 
of the hive, often resulting in swarming. 
See Swarming. 
Nuclei or weak colonies must have no 
larger entrances than they can easily de¬ 
fend. They should be as small as possible 
after the regular honey flow, for then it is 
that robbers are liable to rush in pellmell 
and overpower the guards of the little col¬ 
ony, depriving it of the scanty store it may 
have. (See Robbing.) A two-frame nucleus 
should not have an opening larger than 
will admit two or three bees at a time dur¬ 
ing the robbing season. When the honey 
flow is on, it may be larger; but it should 
be contracted as soon as the flow eases up. 
SIZE of winter entrance. 
When cool weather comes on the en¬ 
trances of all colonies should be contracted, 
both strong and weak, and kept so during 
the entire winter if bees are left outdoors. 
Formerly the practice was to allow the full 
size; but experience has shown that this is 
a serious mistake. There is no more rea¬ 
son why the bees should have their doors 
wide open in midwinter, letting chilling 
drafts blow in, than that their owners 
should leave their doors open. A ten-frame 
Langstroth hive should have an entrance 
about % inch deep by one to eight inches 
wide, the length of the entrance depending 
on the climate and the size of the colony. 
During very severe weather it might be 
still smaller. With a contracted entrance 
it may be necessary for the apiarist to hook 
the dead bees out with a wire two or 
J?JVr/?AJVC£T BZ OCU 
three times during the winter, and possibly 
once in the spring; for in no case must the 
opening be clogged up. 
Demuth and Phillips recommend the use 
of a small entrance in the form of a cir¬ 
cular hole from % to % inch diameter 
