Upper Entrances During a Flow?

[Beeboy01]

I'm getting my hives set up for the summer flow and have heard that a upper entrance above the queen excluder can benefit productivity for a hive as well as giving an exit for any stray drone brood that hatches in the honey super. Giving an exit for the drones will keep them from plugging up the excluder. Anyone use an upper entrance? I was thinking drilling a 3/8 inch hole in the shallow just under the grip would be all that is needed for an upper entrance. 
 

[Oldbeavo]

How do we get drones above the Qx?
Is it a proven benefit to have a top entrance or just something that human logic thinks would be a good idea.
A hole in the front does not give much room on the inside as the side bar of the frame is only about a bee width from the wood.

[Beeboy01]

A frame is a bee width away from the inside of the box which is all that is needed for a bee to use the upper entrance. An upper entrance give improved ventilation in the hive and a closer path for the field bees to bring honey in. 
  In my case I have some drone brood in a honey super from wintering without an excluder and would like to place one under the super to keep the queen from moving back up into it. I am concerned about drones not being able to exit the super, expiring and having their bodies attract small hive beetles.

[little john]

Why not use a plywood QX - drones can pass around them without any difficulty.  Dunno why they're not more popular ?  I wouldn't use one to keep two queens apart, but for keeping the queen restricted to just the one box - they're ideal.  And you can make them for pennies. 
LJ

[sc-bee]

How do we get drones above the Qx?
Is it a proven benefit to have a top entrance or just something that human logic thinks would be a good idea.
A hole in the front does not give much room on the inside as the side bar of the frame is only about a bee width from the wood.

http://beesource.com/point-of-view/jerry-hayes/queen-excluder-or-honey-excluder/

[tjc1]

Interesting article - thanks, SC.

LJ, can you tell us more about the plywood excluder?

[BeeMaster2]

Good article from Jerry Hayes. Just wish he hadn?t turned Benedict on us.
Jim

[Beeboy01]

Yeah, too bad he moved over to the dark side. I met him twice when he was the bee inspector and was impressed by his knowledge.
    So it appears that there is a major advantage in using an upper entrance when a Qx is in place for honey production which is what asked. I'll give it a try on the hive that has the brood moved up into the shallow.

[2Sox]

You can purchase a notched inner cover or notch it your self.  Inverted or notch up, it's the easiest upper entrance I can imagine.   

[Beeboy01]

A notched inner cover would work but I'll just drill a 1/2 inch hole in the super under the handle and plug it with a chunk of wood when done. It's the K.I.S.S. system of beekeeping in my bee yard whenever possible.

[2Sox]

A notched inner cover would work but I'll just drill a 1/2 inch hole in the super under the handle and plug it with a chunk of wood when done. It's the K.I.S.S. system of beekeeping in my bee yard whenever possible.

Yep, K.I.S.S. is the gold standard.  I taught science in NYC for thirty years and would often refer to this rule.  I'd just change the last S to "student" (but made sure they knew what that last S was intended to mean). 

I've had to do some drilling over the years. Caught a few unexpected swarms at times and didn't have a bottom board.  Took a piece of plywood for that and drilled a couple of holes in a medium as a stand in.  Corks from wine bottles took care of those later on.

[Acebird]

Inverted or notch up, it's the easiest upper entrance I can imagine.

In my opinion the notch should never be up.  No reason for it.  Flipping the inner cover transfers wax and propolise to the outer cover and makes the two stick together.  Leave it down and you won't frown.

[tjc1]

I have some inner covers that are the same both sides, and some that are deeper on the notch side. These I flip during the season to notch up, otherwise the bees do funky stuff with that extra space... Also, in the summer I either screen the inner cover and put sticks under the corners for ventilation, or use a ventilated spacer between the inner and telescoping covers, so no problems with the covers sticking together.