Chris said:

It is likely that the new hornets, when, inevitably, they arrive will wipe
out the ferals as there won't be beekeepers to defend them. However I do
have a top bar hive with a circular entrance a little over an inch in
diameter in which the bees, in the wasp (yellow jacket to Americans) season,
provide a propolis screen to reduce the entrance to one, easily defendable,
bee-way. I have also seen this where bees were using a broken conical escape
of a CDB hive as a main entrance.

So there is hope.'

Will we keep hornets out of hives by fixing a strip of queen excluder over
the entrance, ie is excluder small enough to block hornets? 
Of course it would also block drones so could only be used when swarming was
over and queens no longer needed mating.  
Or could special excluder be made slightly larger to let in drones but still
exclude hornets?  How large are hornets? 

Robin 

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