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Hardware Cloth
Overview
Hardware cloth is something used often when building your own equipment. The mesh spacing is often expressed as a number -- e.g., #4. This expression relates to the number of wires / inch. So, #4 hardware cloth has 4 wires per inch (i.e., every ¼").
The sizes often used for beekeeping equipment are:
| Size | Pass Thru? | Comments | |||
| Workers | Drones | Queens | |||
| #8 | 1/8" | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | Especially useful for covering ventilation holes where you don’t want pests to enter (e.g., on quilt boxes) or bees to exit (e.g., on observation hives). |
| #7 | 1/7" | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | |
| #6 | 1/6" | squeeze thru | ✖ | ✖ |
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| #5 | 1/5" | easily pass thru | ✖ | ✖ | Pollen often gets knocked off workers. Good for a pollen trap. |
| #4 | 1/4" | easily pass thru | easily pass thru | easily pass thru | Sometimes pollen will get knocked off (workers). This is quite useful for mouse guards as mice cannot pass thru this. |
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Disclaimer: eMail comments to me at BeekeepingBoK @ Gmail.com. The process of beekeeping can cause injury or be a health hazard unless proper precautions are taken, including the wearing of appropriate protective equipment. |