"As for the tube entrance, That should work regardless of the size of the
hive body used. Any wire mesh used at the bottom to close off the entrance
or for a mesh floor would have to be quite small to keep out the hive
beetle, since it is about 1/4 the size of a bee (or less)."

Sorry for the late reply, catching up on bee-mail.
In the April issue of ABJ, some research was published about using modified
hive entrances for the control of Small Hive Beetles. The summary was
basically that using a tube entrance in place of the standard entrance
(which is closed for maximum beetle control) shows promise in early tests.
There were some problems however. "Colonies with pipe entrances seem to have
associated problems with reduced brood production, impaired
thermoregulation, excess floor debris and poor water drainage." Possible
solutions to these problems involve the use of OMF's, these however must be
beetle-proof and must resist propolisation.

Ken Haller
Viking Honey Farm
Arlington Heights, Illinois USA
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