Hello you all.

I have a question that i've been trying to find a good answer for. Do the
bees really need a landing board on the hive? Some beekeepers claim it's
necessary because the bees are heavily loaded and tired when they return and
will fall down and die if there's no landing board. I still haven't seen the
pile of dead bees on any of my hives without the board, so i'm doubtful.

Others claim the landing board turns the hive into a bird feeder. We have
some birds in Sweden who will knock on the hive with their beak and then eat
the bees that come out to protect the hive.

Still others claim the landing board, if it goes all the way to the ground,
turns the hive into an ant-and bee hive. That may be correct in areas where
ants are a problem, maybe.

So far, i've figured bees have survived in nature for thousands of years
without landing boards and will do just fine without them. What do you guys
think? Are there any scientific experiments on landing boards? Do you use
them and if yes, what benefits do you see from them?

/Mats Andersson, Stockholm Sweden