Entrance reducer/Boardman Feeder/New colony

To be clear, you recommend not using an entrance reducer, correct?

Thanks for the information folks And leads to two questions:
1) how do you distinguish a robber bee from a colony bee?
2) should I install a robber screen now and ditch the boardan feeder for another option?

Thanks everyone; I ordered a Ceracell feeder. It looked like a simple solution, but are there any “Unadvertised Features” with these things?

Thanks for all the good advice folks. Today I became a beekeeper!

Ok, I have been reading about entrance reducers, when to change them, remove the, honey flow etc. There seems to be a lot of opinion on this topic. I did my first hive inspection on Sunday and found the bees making comb and filling with what I assume to be sugar-water and pollen. There was a piece of burr comb I scraped off that was delicious and tasted like honey..

In the morning there is a steady stream of 5-6 workers returning with pollen each minute mixed in with the guards and others. The landing pad is already stained orange-yellow from pollen. There is always a lot of activity at the entrance but the returning pollen gatherers seem to get head-of-the-line privileges getting back inside but there is a lot of climbing over others to do so.

Should I I consider swapping out for the larger opening?

roadkillbobb said:

I would say the entrance size depends on the strength ( number of bees)of your hive ..small numbers can only defend a small opening, if your hive is big and full, open the entrance a little..if you watch them and see how they go in and out and doesnt seem to be a bottle neck, leave as is, if they are having to climb over each other to get in open a small amount at a time till it looks like they can get in and out without issue, also keep an eye out for robbers...unfortunately there is no right answer on what size works for all..you have to determine what works for YOUR hive at a particular time..

Click to expand...

That is indeed the hard part of a new hobby; figuring out what works! The one thing that gives me comfort is that there is so much debate on entrance reducer use. It tells me that the restriction is only necessary if the hive is under attack, otherwise it is an insurance policy that probably adds some inefficiency to the bees lives.
I think I’ll wait until I see returning foragers getting stalled on the landing board then give them a bigger hole.