What I do is put a piece of wood under the outer cover at one end, about
1/4" thick.  Works fine, with no risk of rain getting in. Most covers are
a pretty sloppy fit, so if you raise up one end  just a little there's
plenty of ventilation space opened.  I usually raise the back end, so
that the air flow from the bottom entrance upward has to sweep through
the whole hive to get to the back.  Very easy to do, and sure beats
drilling holes in your supers.
 
On Wed, 21 May 1997 18:19:09 -0400 Ted Wout <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
>Roger Carlson wrote:
>>>Would there be any advantage or disadvantage to stacking the deep
>brood
>supers (or any supers for that matter) crisscross to the previous one?
>In other words the frames on the bottom running east to west and the
>frames on the next one up running north to south...?<<
>
>There are dangers of robbing in the bee yard if you do this.  But I
>bet
>it's great for ventilation.  I have never seen supers crisscross but
>have
>seen the top super purposely offset a few inches to provide better
>ventilation during the hot Texas summer.  In this case the frames are
>parallel, just pushed back an inch or two, the same effect as an upper
>entrance drilled in a super.  I don't think you would want to do this
>during a dearth because all your field bees would be hanging out with
>no
>forage.  Leaving them an open invitation to rob might be too
>irresistable
>for them.
>
>I have one super that has a 1" entrance drilled in it.  I bought it
>that
>way from a retired beekeeper.  The hive with that super has produced
>more
>honey than any others that I have.  Everytime I go to that hive there
>are
>bees fanning for all they are worth from this entrance.  The aroma of
>drying nectar is overwhelming at this hive, I love that sweet smell.
>Maybe
>there is something to this...
>
>Ted Wout
>Red Oak, TX
>