Nicot Queen & Drone Blocking Entrance 4.2 mm

01 · WHAT IT KEEPS IN

Queen and drones do not pass 4.2 mm

Unlike the rest of the family, this one is not there to meter worker traffic but to stop the largest individuals. At 4.2 mm a worker crosses and a queen or a drone does not. That makes it useful in specific manoeuvres: stopping a swarm leaving by holding the queen, keeping foreign queens out when there are hives close by or matings under way, and restricting drone movement when management calls for it. It is an occasional tool, not a season door.

02 · THE WHOLE FAMILY

The number in the reference is the height of the gap

These entrance blocks are the same plastic strip with the gap calibrated to a different size, and that number — the one in the reference — is the only thing that changes between them. Choosing well means choosing who you want to keep out:

03 · IT FITS THE FLOOR, NOT THE HIVE

Compatibility is decided by the bottom board

It is the question we get most, and it is worth turning around from how it is usually asked: it is not «does it fit a 10-frame Dadant?», it is «do I have a NICOT floor?». These blocks clip into the preinstalled slots of NICOT bottom boards, so what decides the fit is the floor you have fitted, not the model or the frame count of the hive. If your floor is not NICOT, measure your entrance and look for the model that matches it — there are long metal blocks and angled blocks for other floors.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is the same strip as the rest of the PORTEPED10 line and fits the same slots, so if you already use the 5.5 or 8.5 it goes in the same place. Bear in mind that an excluder at the door changes colony behaviour: drones inside cannot get out and build up, and a colony blocked for long gets agitated. This is for days, not months.