>>I have used supers with holes drilled in them, Imirie shims, and provided 
top entrances for my bees...my experience was that very few bees chose to 
use any of those entrances. 

This has been my experience exactly.  I am in zone 7 and have found replacing the inner cover with a full screen board and having screened board fully open works best.  No bee beards other than some small ones during hot, humid nights.  One needs to have enough boxes on the hives to contain large bee populations.  The telescoping cover should be lifted and rotated about 15-20 deg. on the screen board.  This allows good ventilation and yet keeps the rain out. 

Hives out in direct sun will always have some bees venting at the entrances.   The above set-up keeps their number to a minimum.  The above set-up creates the best chimney effect, in my opinion, for keeping the brood expensed air conditioned and drying off the honey in the supers. 

In my opinion, having too many holes in the hives requires the bees need to post extra guards to keep robbers out and I think makes the bees more defensive.

Waldemar

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