Upper Hive Opening

by Kay
(Houston, Tx)

I am a new beekeeper with lots of questions! Wouldn't the upper hive opening make the hive vulnerable to robber bees?
Thanks,
Kay

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Kay, that's a good question.

What's important is that you not have multiple entrances on a weak colony.

For a strong colony, having an upper entrance does not increase the risk of robbing. The colony will have guard bees posted at every entrance to the colony (smart, aren't they?). So as long as a colony is strong in numbers, all entrances will be well guarded.

But a weak colony might have difficulty in defending multiple entrances - or even one entrance if it's too large - simply because of the relatively small number of bees. That's one reason for reducing the entrance size of the hive for a newly hived package.

Glad to have another beekeeper in the ranks, and feel free to let us know sometime how you and your bees are getting along.