🐝 Printing Entrances

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It turned cold again... grrrr! Hopefully, those bees have enough population in the box to cover the brood. Starting (as always) to second guess myself with moving that brood above the excluder to make more room for that queen to lay. The last thing we want are frames of chilled brood right before the flow. While we are taking the time to worry a bit, I also hope these frosty temps don't burn the new flowers. 

I spent some time working on an updated version of the entrances to the new mating nucs I have rattling around inside my head. Shamelessly taking the Guardian Bee Hive Entrance thoughts and adding some robbing screen details. Hopefully combing both protection against Small Hive Beetles and Robbing. 

The design of the entrance plate so far:

... and the frame to mount it on the hive:

I haven't got the frame actually printed yet to test the form, fit, and function yet. Hopefully today. Well, it came out pretty cool. Made the entrance plate proud by 1/8", but other than that, I think this dog will hunt. Just as a side note... Not a fan of this PETG Filament, it seems to leave bird's nest residue everywhere and it's tough to clean up. Not to mention the surface finish pitted and rough. Not exactly sure I'm a fan of the transparent quality... All in all it gets a meh, and I think well be switching back to PLA. 




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