Year round, no. I actually haven't had them on my main apiary in a few years. When I had my outyards in fields is when I put them on in the fall and removed in the spring.
I would think that it will be much harder for the morticians to do their job in the winter. Only one way to find out. Let us know how it works.......or not so well.
Terri R - this worked a lot better than the cut down queen excluders I had used in the past. The openings allowed the drones to leave or be kicked out and I also didn’t have any evidence of mice in the hives.
It will. If you make them to the size of the bar stock, you will be fine. When I removed the old queen excluder material, the weight of the bar stock dropped the bar to the base and left no gaps of concern.
@@jamescrawford9786 Nope. They can climb up that little bit of lip and easily exit out of the holes with the dead bees. The problems with the old queen excluder material is that drones which may be in the hive can't get out or get kicked out. They die and can plug the slots. In the winter, I usually close off with tape or whatever is available about all but 3 or 4 holes. I try and control the drafts entering the hive. As I made this video about 2 or 3 years ago, I haven't had any issues with mice and have moved to just using a piece of wood as an entrance reducer leaving about a 1 1/2" opening for the bees.
@@jamescrawford9786 You can do whatever you feel is comfortable. One thing I thought about is when you're not using the mouse guard, water could collect in this groove and help increase potential rot of your bottom board. The great thing about DIY is try it out and if it doesn't work the way you like, you can switch it up and go into another direction. Good luck with your beekeeping adventure.
I use rabbit wire bend in a L take a stapler. Put it on .very cheap.and works.
More than one way to always do things. Thanks for your input and letting us know what works for you.
Was wondering you leave mouse guards on all the time
Year round, no. I actually haven't had them on my main apiary in a few years. When I had my outyards in fields is when I put them on in the fall and removed in the spring.
I would think that it will be much harder for the morticians to do their job in the winter. Only one way to find out. Let us know how it works.......or not so well.
Todd Achten- Will do. Someone has to experiment and find the results. I definitely hope it’s worthwhile!
How did it work out? My husband brought out a piece of this from the garage. I was going to just screw it on. Does it work?
Terri R - this worked a lot better than the cut down queen excluders I had used in the past. The openings allowed the drones to leave or be kicked out and I also didn’t have any evidence of mice in the hives.
Great, thanks!
Does the bar stock go right to the bottom board
It will. If you make them to the size of the bar stock, you will be fine. When I removed the old queen excluder material, the weight of the bar stock dropped the bar to the base and left no gaps of concern.
@@6acrefarmstead224 with that lip in the bar stock does it make it hard for them too remove the dead
@@jamescrawford9786 Nope. They can climb up that little bit of lip and easily exit out of the holes with the dead bees. The problems with the old queen excluder material is that drones which may be in the hive can't get out or get kicked out. They die and can plug the slots. In the winter, I usually close off with tape or whatever is available about all but 3 or 4 holes. I try and control the drafts entering the hive. As I made this video about 2 or 3 years ago, I haven't had any issues with mice and have moved to just using a piece of wood as an entrance reducer leaving about a 1 1/2" opening for the bees.
@@6acrefarmstead224 I was thinking of a adding a slot that allows the bar to sit in to the bottom board ..
@@jamescrawford9786 You can do whatever you feel is comfortable. One thing I thought about is when you're not using the mouse guard, water could collect in this groove and help increase potential rot of your bottom board. The great thing about DIY is try it out and if it doesn't work the way you like, you can switch it up and go into another direction. Good luck with your beekeeping adventure.