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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Alicia Reenders <a.reenders AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] inner cover question
  • Date: Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:34:32 -0400

Alicia,

An inner cover is traditional (for hobbyists) but not necessary. Commercial beekeepers don't typically use inner covers on their migratory hives.

Some people don't see any value in using inner covers but in my opinion they can be useful (but not essential). If bees attach the tops of the frames directly to the cover, it can be easier to get them loose from the inner cover (easier to see what is going on) than if they are stuck directly to the outer cover. But not a earth-shattering issue either way. Also if the inner cover is notched in the front, it can provide an upper entrance, which perhaps the bees find handy. It makes sense that it would be easier for a forager to go directly to the honey-storage area (up top) rather than having to travel through the whole hive from the bottom.

To answer your questions directly:
Is there a tiny gap between the inner and outer cover? Some hive construction plans call for creating a very small airway around the inner cover (e.g. by putting round-head screws in the corners). Yes, this is a great place for beetles to hide and the bees will caulk it up with propolis. But it isn't a life-and-death issue either way. Beetles have plenty of places to hide even in the most "beetle smart" hive so that isn't something I worry too much about.

Do you need a bee escape?  Assuming you mean something like a Porter escape (the little plastic thingee that fits in an inner cover hole), triangle escape, etc., these are ONLY used for harvesting purposes. I've had fairly good luck with triangle escapes but there is a trick to them. The triangle is on a board somewhat like an inner cover. You remove your honey supers, then put the triangle escape on the hive, then stack honey supers on top of the triangle escape. So in the stack of boxes, the escape will be somewhere in the middle. If you have a notched entrance in your inner cover, make sure it is closed or just remove the inner cover. Because of the triangular design, the bees travel down through the escape (to get out) but have trouble traveling back up into the honey supers. You go back the next day and hope the supers are fairly empty, ready to harvest. The trick is that you need to put an empty super (no frames) underneath the triangle escape, so that when the bees go down they have someplace to go. Otherwise there is a major traffic jam of bees coming out and unsuccessfully trying to get back in, and the escape just doesn't work. Another trick is not to use an escape with more than two or so supers at a time. More supers than that and you've just got too many bees for the escape to deal with. Note that an escape is only going to be on the hive for a day at most. Longer than that and you've removed the protective bees from the honey, making it a feast for wax moths, small hive beetles etc.

Could you have a solid inner cover? Sure, that wouldn't hurt anything. I've also seen fully-screened inner covers, which is basically a variation of that idea.

I would suggest that for your very first hive, you make it as traditional (as store-bought-looking) as you can. Then as you use it you'll discover the basic point behind certain features and also find things that can be improved upon. But to be useful, the latter will only come from your own retrospective experience.

Good luck!

Randall



Alicia Reenders wrote:
m2kd2235bc1004040616z67c1660eu1d10a9711099afa1 AT mail.gmail.com" type="cite">Hello!

I am soon to be a new beekeeper, and I have a question about the inner and outer cover set-up.  Is there a tiny gap created between the inner and outer cover? Do beetles ever hide out in that tiny space? Also, do I have to have a bee escape in the outer cover, or in the inner cover for that matter, or is that only for honey harvesting purposes? Could I have a solid inner cover?

I saw a friend's hive that didn't use an inner cover at all. This seemed to work well for him, though he did have some burr comb on the underside of the cover.

Thanks! I might have missed the class where we talked about this. I'm building my own hives, so would like to know what I really need to have there.

-Alicia

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