Guardian Bee Hive Entrance – The “Guardian” is a patented technology that keeps small hive beetles from entering a beehive by masking the entrance. The “Guardian” also uses red light technology that has been proven to detour the small hive beetle and disrupts their invasive efforts. Installation of the Guardian Hive Entrance is simple and adapts to any beehive configuration from 10 and 8 frame Langstroth, as well as 5 frame nucleus colonies. The Guardian gives your bees a fighting chance against the threat of small hive beetles.
Guardian Bee Hive Entrance is available for standard entrances and also round / nuc style entrances.
Guardian has been created to aid honey bees in protecting their colonies by preventing these destructive beetles from entering the hive. The designer, Mike Munson, created this novel device out of necessity and to care for his own bees. As a new beekeeper, Mike lost his first hive to beetle infestation, so he knew he needed to figure out a way to prevent this from happening again.
With extensive research, he discovered much about the SHB and bees in the wild. In the wild, bees prefer a small entrance to their hive. This is much easier for the bees to protect from intrusion. SHB like to maneuver and hide along 90 degree corners to stay protected from the guard bees. Thus, the Guardian hive entrance was created, prototyped, and studied. Now because of the efficacy of the Guardian, it is available for other beekeepers to use with their own hives!
Guardian Bee Hive Entrance Information and FAQ **PLEASE READ*** ( from the Guardian website )
- ** Can the Guardian be left on all year: We do not recommend leaving the Guardian on the hive at temperatures below 40 F – Hive beetles are not active below this temperature and damage may occur to the Guardian
- ** Can the Guardian be used as a mouse guard: The Guardian was not designed to be a mouse guard and significant damage may result.
- ** Prototype Guardians have a solid landing board in a one piece design – The landing board feature will be honeycombed in the commercial version. The commercial version will consist of 2 pieces that interlock.
- ** Does it come in different sizes? Currently the Guardian comes in one size. This size accommodates 10 frame 8 frame and Nucleus hives. We may offer different sizes in the future.
- Guardians should be installed once temperatures are above 50 F or when doing a fresh package install.
- There is a learning curve for the bees to understand using the Guardian. It usually takes around 2 hours for traffic to move thru it smoothly.
- The opening on the Guardian is almost twice as wide as a queen excluder – A standard queen excluder is 0.15625″ while the guardian is .29″ – Plenty of room for the drones to get out. A standard hive cell is approximately .2″ and a drone cell is .25″
Common Hive Practice:
Tilting a hive forward is important for anyone using a solid bottom board because rainwater can accumulate on the alighting board or blow through the entrance and become trapped inside the hive. Screened bottom boards with holes large enough for beetles to pass are not recommended for installation.
Remove as many small hive beetles from your hives prior to installing the Guardian Bee Hive Entrance
We recommend making sure your hives are free from cracks and crevices that the beetles can access for entry. Make sure entrance reducers are tight with no gaps and that the Guardian is seated tightly to the bottom board.
We do not recommend using screened bottom boards – If the screen is large enough for beetles to pass then the Guardian will not be as effective.
**We do not guarantee that all small hive beetles will be kept out of the hive simply by using the Guardian. The Guardian is a beetle deterrent and not a trap. It has been deigned to aid the bees in protecting their hive. The bees still have to do the work in order to keep them out. We recommend using a secondary internal device like a beetle buster filled with DE to catch any beetles that make it into the hive.**
Standard hive maintenance is required. Always check your Guardian’s integrity with each inspection.
