Credit to Dean Haley for the concept. Lots of people have had Phorid fly problems over recent years and Dean seems to have developed a particular hatred for them. In our conversation he mentioned seeing slotted entrances in natural logs or trees and how the bees would block the whole slot and wondered if this could help keep out Phorid fly. With the regular round hole entrance bees may only line the edge and this leaves a space for Phorid to enter right through the middle of the crowd.
It’s a concept worth investigating and I’m sure we’ll see many variations and will need a few years testing before we could actually see if it helps reduce Phorid fly. I’ve made a few versions below.
Version 1. I started with cutting a slot in a T piece which would be the most basic design to try first. I attached it to a colony and the bees worked it out pretty quickly. The slot width could be changed, narrow or wider.
Version 2. After making a couple of the slot tubes I thought it’d be nice if they could look a bit better so made a wood version. This one screws straight to the front of any box.
Version 3. The combined version, a “plug in block” that could be easily installed to any standard style 13mm entrance on the market. This can be removed and replaced with a vented plug for transport or to lock the bees in.
Installed on a hive box the bees were quick to use it. This is a weak colony so not a lot of bee activity but maybe we can experiment with different widths of the slot and a “8 bee wide slot”. It will be interesting to see this during summer when there’s lots of traffic.
