Beehive Entrance reducer against hornets

01 · WHY THEY DO NOT GET IN

It is a matter of height, not strength

The filter is purely geometric. A worker crosses a gap of about 5 mm without slowing the flow of traffic; a Vespa velutina or a Vespa crabro is never under 7 mm and simply does not fit. With that, the predator cannot get in to rob stores or hunt inside, which is where the real damage is done. What the block does not do, and this should be said: it does not stop the hornet hunting on the wing in front of the entrance. That is hawking and no door affects it — the block protects the inside, not the flight.

02 · MEASURE YOUR ENTRANCE

What decides is the opening, not the hive's name

We are often asked «does it fit Layens?», «and Dadant?», and the question is wrongly framed from the start. These blocks mount over the hive entrance, so what decides is how wide that entrance is, not what the model is called. There are two sizes: the long one for hives and the short one for nucs. Take a ruler, measure the entrance you have and pick the one that covers it — if your opening is another width, neither covers it, and that is better known before ordering twenty. On NICOT floors, which have their own slots, the family is a different one: the plastic blocks that clip in.

03 · WHERE IT SITS IN THE FAMILY

First decide what you want to keep out

All entrance blocks do the same thing — govern who comes in — and differ in how much they let through. Choosing well means deciding the aim first and the size second:

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Pick the size by your entrance: 378 × 36 mm for hives and 250 × 36 mm for nucs. It is a seasonal piece: fit it when hornet pressure starts and remove it afterwards, because a narrow gap also slows traffic during a flow. And if your apiary is in velutina country, fit them on all of them: leaving half unfiltered concentrates the pressure on exactly those.