With regard to the entrance reducer thread. All my hives make a propolis wall about a centimeter in from the entrance with a few holes in it. The bees shut the holes they don't need in winter. If I put a reducer over the entrance, the amount of space for bees to land on is reduced, so bees bump the reducer and are too chilled to get back in occasionally. If they had had that 1cm of space to touch down on they would have been okay. Also, the entrance reducer gives the bees little place for guards, leading to robbing problems on warm days. So my feeling: entrance reducers are a waste of time that interfere with the bees natural ventilation mechanisms. I have only used them on hives that I have started during the winter which cannot gather much propolis because it is all rock hard on the trees due to the temp. Keep well Garth --- Garth Cambray "Opinions expressed in this post may be those 15 Park Road of Pritz, my cat, who knows a lot about Grahamstown catfood." 6140 *[log in to unmask]* South Africa Phone 27-0461-311663 In general, generalisations are bad. But don't worry BEEEEEE happy.