Perforated entrance closure

01 · IT CLOSES WITHOUT SUFFOCATING

The perforations are the product

With the hive shut and in full sun, a colony makes heat and damp that have nowhere to go. The perforations in the sheet let the air move while the entrance stays blocked, and that shows on a long journey, on a load that runs late, or in any operation that keeps the hive closed for hours. With a blind closure the same trip raises the inside temperature, and the risk is real, above all in summer with the hive full of honey.

02 · HOW MANY TO FIT

One on a Layens, two side by side on a migratory hive

The count comes from the width of the entrance gap, not from the hive format. On a Layens, a single closure covers the whole entrance. On migratory Langstroth and Dadant hives, where the entrance is wider, two are fitted side by side to cover the gap. It is sold singly, so order what that sum gives you plus a few spares: these are pieces that bend when you lever them off.

03 · WHICH ONE OF THE FAMILY

Close, reduce, regulate or filter

We carry one entrance piece for each job and they should not be confused. This perforated one is for closing with ventilation. The blind one, the same size, closes completely and needs ventilation provided some other way. The long metal one comes in 190 mm for nucs and 378 for hives, and serves to reduce for winter or to close with ventilation. The angled one regulates the entrance by season. And to keep the Asian hornet out there are the anti-velutina ones, with a gap of about 5.5 mm that a worker passes and a hornet does not: this one does not do that job.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Supplied singly, without nails or screws. Measure your entrance gap before deciding how many to fit.