?  Am I correct in assuming that you're running a queen excluder over the first deep?  How do you manage the boxes above the excluder in order to 	minimize swarming?

Yes excluders.   Very good beek told me the trick to excluders is to have them on all the time. When you throw them on midseason the bees many times take that as the new roof, and will be swarmy and not fill the supers.   I find that to be an accurate statement.  You can't wait till a honey flow to exclude or they do get swarmy.  If the excluder is on all the time,  they seem use to it, and used to transversing it.  Super the snot out of them,  I under super,  so every time we add its right above that excluder. That keeps issues with swarms down. Hives that beard a lot warrant immediate attention.

The other thing you have to keep in mind id that come sept,  we pull supers and excluders and put on the second deep or sometimes a super for 1 1/2s  depends on how may drawn combs we have.  Then feed like crazy.






	This is a widely-debated subject.  Upper ventilation creates a thermosiphon effect that removes precious heat from the hive, so there is a trade 	off against minimizing moisture condensation.  I'm curious as to whether the main benefit of the upper entrance might actually be to encourage 	cleansing flights.  My specific question then is, provided that the hive has heavy insulation above, have you run, or do you know of any published 	trials, that compared wintering in top-vented vs control unvented colonies?


I realize I am not Bob,  but he is right on target,  but to your point I think location is a key also.  When I lived in Iowa we never used top entrances.  It was cold and dry all winter.  Freeze dried air,  literally.  But here in southern IL,  those hives actually die from moisture.  I now live on a freeze line, with little to no cold dry air,  but a lot of wet damp air. Top entrances are a huge key.  Deadouts will mold so bad you think there is nothing to save.  So  I suspect the convection you mention is 100% right,  but a tradeoff.  In areas with dry air,  the cluster needs that moisture,  in areas that are damp and wet,  its too much and many clusters get chilled.


Charles

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