>>>Fully open mesh floors will allow you to reduce your entrance size to keep out the hornets.

>You can also replace the inner cover with a screened rectangular frame and lift & rotate the telescoping cover some 15 deg.  This allows the bees to fan large volume of air through the hive w/o making them vulnerable to intruders larger the mesh.

If ambient temperatures are above the maximum allowable brood temperature, it seems to me that ventillating with outside air could actually be counter-productive and possibly destructive.  

When faced with temperatures above 95 degrees F, bees control the nest temperature by evaporation.  Also, in my experience, when it gets hot, the field force stays home and often hangs out until the air cools down.

The bees on the comb fan air over water brought in by water-bearers.  Considerable heat is taken up by the evaporating water, and the result is a cooling of the nest in the area where evaporation is taking place. Evaporating the water from nectar also provides cooling.

Some bees like dorsata live on comb which is totally open to the air and manage to do fine in hot climates, so I really do not know.  Their situation would suggest that being open to the air is not harmful.   If they are in full sun, though, and ambient air is over 100 F, how do they manage?  Do they require shade?  I don't know.

There are many on this list who have first-hand experience in tropical beekeeping and also desert beekeeping like in the southern US where temperatures are well above 100 F for days and nights on end, and can perhaps advise whether air flow is a good thing or not.

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