Plastic entrance 8,5mm NICOT

01 · WHAT IT LETS THROUGH

All worker traffic, unfiltered

8.5 mm is generous passage for a laden worker, which is exactly what you want during a flow: any narrowing below that slows the queue at the entrance and costs the colony crop. This block filters nothing — not the queen, not drones, not hornets — because that is not its job. It is the good-season door. It is also reversible: turned around, it restricts access, which is what you want in the off season or on a weak colony that needs help defending itself.

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 measures 419 × 38 mm and is 3 mm thick. It goes on and off by hand, no tools, so changing configuration through the year takes seconds. If what you want is to filter something — hornet, queen, drones — this is not it: look at the table above and take the size that matches.