One thing that comes to mind is how are bees going to clean the hive. I would think an entrance half way up the hive would mean a lot of effort for bees to clean the floor of the hive imo and/or a messy hive if they can't clean it.
The same way the bees do in a wild colony, insects can carry 20 x their own body weight. Langstroth's 1860's book is full of contradictions including the bottom entrance where at one point he is saying that its easier for the bees to remove their dead and later he describes its use for removeing rotting detritus. You will also see they recycle the wax so there is very little to remove.
Mr. Laurence Edwards, how are you? Are your bees wintering well? I'm a fan of you from Uzbekistan. From 5500 km distance waiting gifts is so amazing. Thanks you.
Looking forward to seeing how these work out for you and your bees. Thanks for sharing something new. Wishing you all the best in beekeeping! Thumbs UP.
Hey thanks for stopping by Fred :) Beekeeping royalty in the house right there! 😀 I love trying new things. I have a spare set (in addition to the competition set). If you wanna try them, I can send you a pack 😉
This is very interesting. Would help keep critters out. Just not sure what happens during the main flow, this doesn’t seem like a big enough entrance. This is Shawn from Redmond, WA in the US
Hi Laurence, I will try to 3d print some of these *IF* I do not win some! Given that you are using a 12x14 brood box, could you do away with the basement and drill your 'intrance' holes halfway up the 12x14? Bee mismanagement in Leeds!
I'm in Manchester. They'll be interesting to try out side by side but I reserve judgement on the cost of drilling holes in a full box compared a separate cheap and cheerful under floor entrance. Maybe they would be better in a separate very shallow box about the height of the underfloor entrance ones. They would be no use for poly hives.
Very interesting concept, I lost a hive to storm Eunice yesterday, luckily the other three survived, it might be interesting to try on a split or swarm now that I have a spare brood box.
Hi, I'm near Doncaster DN9. These look interesting I'd love to see them hinder wasps as 1 of my hives has taken a beating from them. Thanks for all the information you put out on your channel.
Great simple idea keen to see if it helps with the wasps my hives got hammered last years. Thank you for all the great reviews you do and the time you spend on the really helps.
I've been contemplating trying these for a while now. I've got some sacrificial Langstroth kit that'll be perfect for it. Looking forward to the updates throughout the season. 👍 love what you're doing, Wayne , Norwich UK
Cheers Wayne. I think I've got a spare pack up here knocking around somewhere. I can dig them out and send them to you if you like. Thanks for your support
I learn a lot from you every week. I would love to try the up/downstairs entrance on my Layens hives. Looks like good cold winter air control as well. Iowa USA
Very interesting idea! I’d like to see how they get on in my local tropical environment. We have lots of little nasty critters trying to enter the hive all year round. Cairns, Far North Queensland, Australia 🇦🇺
This looks Awesome. I have always used langstroth hives with bottom enteances. I am curious how the bees will keep the bottom of the hive clean. I would like to try these entrances out and see how they work. I have relocated multiple bees from houses and the entrance is usually a small hole so i guess this isnt any different than that or a tree entrance. Great video thanks for sharing.
These entrances may be easy to defend but by adding two 90 degree "turns" that air has to follow to ventilate the hive it will make it a lot harder for the bees to ventilate the hive when they need to.
These INtrances look INteresting! Would love to try a set in Northern IL, USA. I often use front entrances instead of bottom - u r correct - easier to defend!
Id love to test these here in SE Kansas. We get temp veriations from well below 0 to well above 35. Would be super to find a new bit of kit to keep robbing down as it can be intense here! M
Brecon, WALES Still like underfloor entrances adding plastic to wooden hives means a nuisance when you want to torch them . Give them a go though if for free.
These look interesting and could be a great way to stop attack from wasps. Here in Cornwall we seem to have wasps for ages🙈 let’s hope I’m the lucky one to get the prize😁
Interesting and definitely useful ! I remember when the wasp where robbing my hive, i tried all the wasp traps and non worked! so I just screwed a piece of wood to act as a entrance reducer and well it worked! but with a lot of dead bees in total. There is a lot of new and interesting gadgets and equipment that you did a review on, cant wait to see all of them in action! really curious on how you do with the real and fake flow hive! Bedfordshire.
Glad you reviewed these I look forward to see how things work out. Saw them at the National Honey Show as well. I think they also do software for keeping records of your hives using QR codes attached to the outside as a way of identifying the hive. Do you think you will be reviewing this software as well? Great video as usual. Hope you are all alright and not too much damage after Storm Eunice. Martin Staffordshire
Keep the cedar shavings for smoker. Cedar is anti mite in someway. An aid not a solution. Probably figures as cedar is used for anti moth. So worth using. Would i use them, well that probability increased as you featured it... but I have top entrance ekes for use in really hot temps (for Oxfordshire that is) but they don’t really use them. May Bee my bees are awkward, not open minded like me!
Its a real smart piece of kit. Grass pellets nabbed of the horse and a mix of dry horse poo and shavings. And during the summer coconut husks are great and work wonders on the bees.
I have enjoyed all your videos and this is just another set that I will be watching very close. I like the idea this is a mouse guard and also acts as a warm way entrance for a standard Langstroth hive. Very exciting!
Looks interesting. Will having the Intrance on the inside, reduce the bee space and risk the bees building comb between the plastic and the frames? Time will tell I guess!
Interesting,here in Greece we have a lot of hornets so looking for ways to keep them out and stil have enough ventilation. Looking forward to the next update.
These look interesting. One of my late split nucs is getting a right kicking by the wasps at the moment, trying to find the nest for a revenge attack but cant locate it yet. Would love to give these a go see how they work. Great channel, thanks for all the interesting and informative vids. All the best, from Kakatahi, NZ.
Thanks Daren. Good luck with the competition and thanks for supporting the channel. These are very good at tackling wasps attacks before they get going
So are you using 14x12 as supers now ?I made a wasp entrance last summer .Essentially I placed a box made of mesh over the nuc entrance with a side entrance .Once the wasp entered the first hole and into the cage they panic and the bees stacking up mob them.
I know this video is a couple years old, but how do you feel about these entrances now? Were they a success? Did you run into any problems? I would love to see a follow up on these. (If you have made one already, I couldn't find it when I searched your channel.)
Lawrence, if you get a driving rain you will get some water in the hive. Do they drill any floor drains in the bottom board? Looks good to reduce wasp attacks.
Interesting idea, I'll have to read up on the whole concept. My fear would be the ingress of water from the horizontal rain that often occurs here in N. Ireland and I'm sure Wales to!
Lincolnshire here, interested to see how this experiment pans out, is the basement level completely necessary? Will the top entrance encourage robbing, an easy in direct to the stores?
Hello Black mountain honey, Do you think a wire landing board would help bees defend from beetles? (I'm thinking the SHB can't hover to enter and would fall through a wire landing board, but bees, loaded with nectar, could land and get in.) I made an ant resistant metal stand from trampoline parts on my channel...I'm learning!
Could you use these when doing a demera setup putting one of these plugs on the top brood box very interested to see if it works or do the bees need to go through the bottom broad box thanks
As an observation, wouldn't it make more sense to have those black caps you put on the inside, on the outside too? Then it would be almost impossible for attackers to work it out.
my largest concern with these is air ventilation. With the hive entrance reduced down to three small entrances that add two 90-degree turns for airflow it will be a lot harder for bees to regulate hive temperatures. Add a second of these on the outside and you now have four 90-degree turns which would only make the issue even worse.
I am no expert but if you have installed the entrances on the inside they will foul on the frames and interfear with the bee space. Surely you would fix them on the outside not the other way round that just doesn't make any sense. The entrances would be unsrewed to install the bungs if you wanted to move the hive. I have never seen anyone install them on the inside of the broodbox.?
J M , I have used these for 2 seasons now and great results, fewer wasp attacks and happier bees. Well I got stung less and they were happy to answer my survey. there are no issues with them fouling on the frames but yes they do end up with a bit of bee glue on them.
Different idea. Looks interesting. Thumbs up from Weymouth, Dorset.
Hi Lawrence, I like them they look really good at keeping wasps and definitely mice. Liverpool.
Maybe difficult for the bees to remove the dead one?
That's a good thought, I'm curious how they would remove bees as well
One thing that comes to mind is how are bees going to clean the hive. I would think an entrance half way up the hive would mean a lot of effort for bees to clean the floor of the hive imo and/or a messy hive if they can't clean it.
The same way the bees do in a wild colony, insects can carry 20 x their own body weight. Langstroth's 1860's book is full of contradictions including the bottom entrance where at one point he is saying that its easier for the bees to remove their dead and later he describes its use for removeing rotting detritus. You will also see they recycle the wax so there is very little to remove.
Love the video, learn so much from your videos
Mark Thompson from Northern Ireland
Mr. Laurence Edwards, how are you? Are your bees wintering well? I'm a fan of you from Uzbekistan. From 5500 km distance waiting gifts is so amazing. Thanks you.
Looking forward to seeing how these work out for you and your bees. Thanks for sharing something new. Wishing you all the best in beekeeping! Thumbs UP.
Hey thanks for stopping by Fred :)
Beekeeping royalty in the house right there! 😀
I love trying new things. I have a spare set (in addition to the competition set). If you wanna try them, I can send you a pack 😉
I bought these last year, and I’m going to try two new hives this year here in Chicago!
This looks really interesting look forward to see how you get on.
Interesting, and would love to give them a go here in darkest Essex
Interesting concept, keen to see the outcome.
Looking forward to seeing how these work
Thanks great video, looking forward to spring and my bees go in to over drive. All the best Mark from Cambridge UK.
Very interesting. I would love to try these entrances. Greetings from the Netherlands.
Dave here l. I live in SE Kentucky USA.
Think I’ll look at trying these out this year. Great videos by the way.
Keep ‘em coming. 👍
This is very interesting. Would help keep critters out. Just not sure what happens during the main flow, this doesn’t seem like a big enough entrance. This is Shawn from Redmond, WA in the US
Hi Laurence, I will try to 3d print some of these *IF* I do not win some! Given that you are using a 12x14 brood box, could you do away with the basement and drill your 'intrance' holes halfway up the 12x14?
Bee mismanagement in Leeds!
Looks a good idea , like you say the bees should be able to defend the boxes easier 👍🐝
I'm in Manchester. They'll be interesting to try out side by side but I reserve judgement on the cost of drilling holes in a full box compared a separate cheap and cheerful under floor entrance. Maybe they would be better in a separate very shallow box about the height of the underfloor entrance ones. They would be no use for poly hives.
The presentation and art style from the creater looks fantastic. Very eye catching. Really keen to see how these work for you in the coming season.
Cheers Rob :D Glad you enjoy some of the finer points ;)
Very interesting concept, I lost a hive to storm Eunice yesterday, luckily the other three survived, it might be interesting to try on a split or swarm now that I have a spare brood box.
Looking forward to seeing the results - Intrances are new on me.
Me too. I know a couple of guys that swear by them. Its a nice simple design as well
Looks straight forward Keith Llay
Yes - its a nice simple design
Can't wait to here how you get on. Penzance Cornwall
Hi, I'm near Doncaster DN9. These look interesting I'd love to see them hinder wasps as 1 of my hives has taken a beating from them. Thanks for all the information you put out on your channel.
Great simple idea keen to see if it helps with the wasps my hives got hammered last years. Thank you for all the great reviews you do and the time you spend on the really helps.
I've been contemplating trying these for a while now. I've got some sacrificial Langstroth kit that'll be perfect for it. Looking forward to the updates throughout the season. 👍 love what you're doing, Wayne , Norwich UK
Cheers Wayne. I think I've got a spare pack up here knocking around somewhere. I can dig them out and send them to you if you like. Thanks for your support
@@BlackMountainHoney thanks for your reply Laurence, if you do come across a spare pack that would fantastic 😀 Happy Easter to you and your family 🐰 🐣
I learn a lot from you every week. I would love to try the up/downstairs entrance on my Layens hives. Looks like good cold winter air control as well. Iowa USA
did you try the UD as they are now available in the USA
@@normanguiver1538 I've postponed any testing of this entrance.
I enjoy the videos. From Texas USA
Very interesting idea! I’d like to see how they get on in my local tropical environment. We have lots of little nasty critters trying to enter the hive all year round. Cairns, Far North Queensland, Australia 🇦🇺
Very interesting new beekeeper Trinidad and tobago
Keep seeing these on eBay, looks like a nice piece of kit👍
This looks Awesome. I have always used langstroth hives with bottom enteances. I am curious how the bees will keep the bottom of the hive clean. I would like to try these entrances out and see how they work. I have relocated multiple bees from houses and the entrance is usually a small hole so i guess this isnt any different than that or a tree entrance. Great video thanks for sharing.
Let's see how this is going to run throughout the season. I live in Lebanon.
These entrances may be easy to defend but by adding two 90 degree "turns" that air has to follow to ventilate the hive it will make it a lot harder for the bees to ventilate the hive when they need to.
Interesting concept I'll be looking forward to see how it works. Love the videos keep them coming. Best wishes from Ireland
These INtrances look INteresting! Would love to try a set in Northern IL, USA. I often use front entrances instead of bottom - u r correct - easier to defend!
now stocked by Bee.Watch usa
This looks super interesting, I would love to give it a try. I’m in Alberta Canada
Id love to test these here in SE Kansas. We get temp veriations from well below 0 to well above 35. Would be super to find a new bit of kit to keep robbing down as it can be intense here!
M
Great point! I wonder if they have a US version available.
Yes this looks a must . I lost one of my Hives to Wasps last year 🐝🐝
Brecon, WALES Still like underfloor entrances adding plastic to wooden hives means a nuisance when you want to torch them . Give them a go though if for free.
Love to try this down under. It makes sense and do try out some of your experiments. I'm in Melbourne Australia. Keep up the no nonsense 😉
I'm a bit worried how the bees can clean their hives.. carry out the dead etc. Queanbeyan NSW
These look interesting and could be a great way to stop attack from wasps. Here in Cornwall we seem to have wasps for ages🙈 let’s hope I’m the lucky one to get the prize😁
Interesting and definitely useful ! I remember when the wasp where robbing my hive, i tried all the wasp traps and non worked! so I just screwed a piece of wood to act as a entrance reducer and well it worked! but with a lot of dead bees in total. There is a lot of new and interesting gadgets and equipment that you did a review on, cant wait to see all of them in action! really curious on how you do with the real and fake flow hive! Bedfordshire.
Glad you reviewed these I look forward to see how things work out. Saw them at the National Honey Show as well. I think they also do software for keeping records of your hives using QR codes attached to the outside as a way of identifying the hive. Do you think you will be reviewing this software as well? Great video as usual. Hope you are all alright and not too much damage after Storm Eunice. Martin Staffordshire
Interesting idea...wondering if the bees will use the basement much since they tend to move up generally...let us know...thanks for all your videos!
Hi it appears bees move up because of the draft from a langstroth entrance, i have full brood in the basement box on a solid floor.
Hey from Lincolnshire 🤞
I'm struggling to see the benefits over an underground entrance, but I'm more than happy to see what happens with this👍
I'm close to Stratford upon Avon. These look really enteresting! Do they do ixits as well?
I am in Brecon and started bee keeping last year and had a lot off trouble with wasps
We are going to be using these with our flow hive this year with the top entrance in a super below the flow super. 🤞
Nova Scotia Atlantic Canada.. interesting to she how they work out..
Laurence, you and I seem to try very similar things. I have had these in place for 2 seasons, def less wasp attacks.
Not sure if I get the point of the shallow below the brood box but be interesting to see.
Keep the cedar shavings for smoker. Cedar is anti mite in someway. An aid not a solution. Probably figures as cedar is used for anti moth. So worth using. Would i use them, well that probability increased as you featured it... but I have top entrance ekes for use in really hot temps (for Oxfordshire that is) but they don’t really use them. May Bee my bees are awkward, not open minded like me!
Its a real smart piece of kit.
Grass pellets nabbed of the horse and a mix of dry horse poo and shavings. And during the summer coconut husks are great and work wonders on the bees.
I have enjoyed all your videos and this is just another set that I will be watching very close. I like the idea this is a mouse guard and also acts as a warm way entrance for a standard Langstroth hive. Very exciting!
Aberdeen, could try these on the scaffold board boxes once made up
used these for 2 years. It is impossible for wasps to get in. Watch them try and come shooting out in seconds.
That's great to hear. I am excited to use them this year
Great idea but a tad expensive for plastic.
Very interesting to see how the bees find these this year
Yes. We will see how they hold up against the wasps
I have never seen anything like that. Really like your vids i live in USA in the state of Ohio.
interested to see how these work out. Tempted to try. west Yorkshire
Watching from Vancouver Washington.
Wondering how these could work on Poly Abelos? Ben from London, UK.
It’s good too see, you fire scorched the box for disinfection.
They look very useful
Great videos. They've guided well me through my beekeeping experience. Thank you
Looks interesting. Will having the Intrance on the inside, reduce the bee space and risk the bees building comb between the plastic and the frames? Time will tell I guess!
Interesting,here in Greece we have a lot of hornets so looking for ways to keep them out and stil have enough ventilation. Looking forward to the next update.
It will be interesting to see how easily they can bring out dead bees or struggling drones, but looks like it’s worth trying.
looks good. saves the cost of buying a floor. Might cause some overheating problems in the middle of summer
These look really interesting - off to look at their website as you suggest - look forward to your video reviews. Cheltenham, UK
They certainly are. Its a really neat design
I'm intrigued! We're in south Wales, in our second season with the bees and I'm studying for BBKA modules and finding your advice invaluable.
These look interesting. One of my late split nucs is getting a right kicking by the wasps at the moment, trying to find the nest for a revenge attack but cant locate it yet. Would love to give these a go see how they work. Great channel, thanks for all the interesting and informative vids. All the best, from Kakatahi, NZ.
Thanks Daren. Good luck with the competition and thanks for supporting the channel. These are very good at tackling wasps attacks before they get going
Loves the videos from cork ireland
Am in kendal cumbria like your channel Laurence
So are you using 14x12 as supers now ?I made a wasp entrance last summer .Essentially I placed a box made of mesh over the nuc entrance with a side entrance .Once the wasp entered the first hole and into the cage they panic and the bees stacking up mob them.
Looks interesting but why a solid floor? Without a mesh floor I’d be concerned that the benefits of reducing verroa would be lost.
Looks interesting, would they work on a Langstroth?
I know this video is a couple years old, but how do you feel about these entrances now? Were they a success? Did you run into any problems? I would love to see a follow up on these. (If you have made one already, I couldn't find it when I searched your channel.)
No follow video. They are good and they work but I personally wouldn't buy them as they don't really offer much over a standard underfloor entrance
No follow video. They are good and they work but I personally wouldn't buy them as they don't really offer much over a standard underfloor entrance
Lawrence, if you get a driving rain you will get some water in the hive. Do they drill any floor drains in the bottom board?
Looks good to reduce wasp attacks.
Interesting approach but how do the undertakers remove dead bees?
Norfolk!
My only concern would be when a flow is on it its quite a small entrance, bit of a traffic jam maybe
Interesting idea, I'll have to read up on the whole concept. My fear would be the ingress of water from the horizontal rain that often occurs here in N. Ireland and I'm sure Wales to!
Very interesting. Not sure how I feel about drilling a box. Would they fit over the abelo box vent hole?
I have only used EEG entrances now for 4 years.....
Leicestershire
they . the shields should go on the outside. too cramy on the inside. enough to get propalized.
Andrew Bradley Lincolnshire
Was there a part 2 to this showing their progress/long term review
Lincolnshire here, interested to see how this experiment pans out, is the basement level completely necessary? Will the top entrance encourage robbing, an easy in direct to the stores?
Great vid, Have you ever used the wasp out from Thorns ?
Hello Black mountain honey,
Do you think a wire landing board would help bees defend from beetles? (I'm thinking the SHB can't hover to enter and would fall through a wire landing board, but bees, loaded with nectar, could land and get in.)
I made an ant resistant metal stand from trampoline parts on my channel...I'm learning!
Laurence how drones can get out. Maybe good to stop queen swarming. Not sure this is a good system?
Belgium
Wiil you take them off again when use your blowtorch on the inside of the hive?
Could you use these when doing a demera setup putting one of these plugs on the top brood box very interested to see if it works or do the bees need to go through the bottom broad box thanks
As an observation, wouldn't it make more sense to have those black caps you put on the inside, on the outside too? Then it would be almost impossible for attackers to work it out.
I was thinking it would turn the weather better on the outside also..
my largest concern with these is air ventilation. With the hive entrance reduced down to three small entrances that add two 90-degree turns for airflow it will be a lot harder for bees to regulate hive temperatures. Add a second of these on the outside and you now have four 90-degree turns which would only make the issue even worse.
I am no expert but if you have installed the entrances on the inside they will foul on the frames and interfear with the bee space. Surely you would fix them on the outside not the other way round that just doesn't make any sense. The entrances would be unsrewed to install the bungs if you wanted to move the hive. I have never seen anyone install them on the inside of the broodbox.?
How would you apply the bungs if it was the other way round? You'd have to take all the frames out?
J M , I have used these for 2 seasons now and great results, fewer wasp attacks and happier bees. Well I got stung less and they were happy to answer my survey.
there are no issues with them fouling on the frames but yes they do end up with a bit of bee glue on them.