Hello Alan & All, Alan wrote: Are horizontal landing boards just a foible of beekeepers and beehive designers? We need those for our European bees! Africanized bees fly directly in the entrance. One of the first things I noticed about Africanized bees was watching them not use the landing board. Seriously I imagine beekeepers patterned bee hives after houses with front porches for looks and the idea has hung around. In my opinion hives with several openings are prefered by the bees and the way most hives I have removed from building have been. I did a experiment once using two swarm catchers. one a hive without a landing board and one with. The hive without the landing board cought more swarms over the two year period. The hive with several entrance holes cought the most however. Bob