Bob Harrison asked a question about Imirie shims, and, while my little 12 hive operation is dwarfed by his commercial business, I can say that I have been using them for several years and really like them.  While I normally take them off about this time (not this week, since am on the road right now), I sometimes fall behind and leave them on until much later.  The bees build up some comb here and there on the top bars, but I have never seen them build it up to the inner cover.  They seem to prefer to work their way down into the boxes.  BUT, I always have them off by the time supers go on, so can't speak to what happens if both are on at the same time.

After reading Bob's post, I am thinking about leaving them on all year.  In fact, unless someone has good reasons not to do it, I think that will be a new experiment for this year.  The ones I bought (I think most are from BetterBee), come with little plastic plugs for the openings.   Easy to open and close as needed.  I can see the advantage of having that space all the time either to add things, like pollen patties, or for those times, when the bees have boiled out and are all over the tops of the frames - less squished bees with less smoke.  If I do leave them on, I really like Randy's idea of securing them to the inner covers.  I'm sure that makes them stronger, but it is also one less piece to pry off, and one less gap the bees then have to reseal.  Randy, does that mean you leave a top entrance all year long, or do you just use spacers without top openings?  Anyone have problems with robbing, if you leave a top entrance AND a bottom entrance?  Robbing was really bad for me last year (lost several nucs to it - dang Italians from down the road), so that is my only real concern.  But, can also plug the top entrance, if they can't/won't/don't defend it properly.

Will report on my experience later this year.  Thanks for the idea!

Bill

Claremont, NH (in northern New Jersey right now, which is at least two-three weeks ahead of Claremont)

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