The Guardian Bee Hive Entrance is a patented hive entrance designed to deter small hive beetles by masking the entrance and disrupting their ability to get into the colony.
Key Features
- Patented Beetle-Deterrent Design: Masks the hive entrance, making navigation difficult for small hive beetles
- Physical Barrier Geometry: Entrance edges are hard for beetles to traverse
- Red Light Technology: Uses red light to deter beetles and disrupt their invasive behavior
- Bottom Board Entrance Use: Functions as the primary hive entrance when mounted on the bottom board
- Wide Hive Compatibility: Works with 10-frame, 8-frame, and 5-frame nucleus colonies
- Drone-Friendly Opening: Wide enough for drones to exit without restriction
Detailed Description
This version of the Guardian installs on the bottom board and serves as the primary hive entrance. It must be attached to a wooden entrance reducer or similar wooden support to hold it in place — screws are not included.
Alongside its physical barrier design, the Guardian incorporates red light technology, which the manufacturer states helps deter small hive beetles and interfere with their invasive behavior.
The entrance opening measures approximately 0.29 inches wide — nearly twice the width of a standard queen excluder opening (0.15625 inches). For reference, a standard worker cell is about 0.20 inches wide and a drone cell about 0.25 inches, so drones can exit freely. Because the opening is wider than a queen excluder, this product is not designed to exclude queens — it only keeps out small hive beetles. It's not a substitute for a queen excluder or a tool for controlling swarm traps.
Manufacturer Use Guidelines
- Not recommended for use below 40°F — small hive beetles are inactive at that temperature, and the Guardian itself may be damaged.
- Not designed to function as a mouse guard.
- Install when temperatures are above 50°F, or during fresh package or nucleus hive installations.
- Bees typically adapt to using the Guardian within about two hours.