Betterbee Hive Stand and Screened Bottom Board

[Ron Young]

Has anyone used the hive stand from Betterbee with their wooden hive stand? I just got two of them, and the hive stand was un-assembled. I had it put together loosely, and the fit with the screened board was not very good at all. I called and they tried to talk me through the assembly and I still could not get it to fit the way I wanted, so I modified it. Has anyone eles had this problem? I was wondering if their stand was designed and milled to be used with the solid bottom board, having the screened board atop that? I am going to use the screened board only.

One more question, Is there any problem with making the screened board and the hive stand one intigrated component? I could not think of any reason not to have them together, so I nailed them together, filled the crack and painted it as one item.

Also, would there be any reason not to attach the slatted rack to the bottom board as well? I am considering that, but wanted to ask on here first.

[amymcg]

Hi Ron,

From the website it looks like the screened bottom and solid bottom share the same footprint, so I'm not sure why it would matter which one you used. But, I've never actually seen them together.

From my experience, it's nice to be able to lift the slatted rack off in order to clean any debris that gets between the rack and the screen. They usually propolize it anyway, but if you do attach it, you might want to make sure it's in a way that is easy for you to remove if you need to.

[Ron Young]

I got a privat message from someone at betterbee, and they gave me a link to the assembly directions. I had already modified it to fit my needs, however, the directions were just as I had tried it. In discussing the problem, I gave a detail of the three modification cuts I had to make, and the reason came back as being that the stand is meant to be used with the solid bottom board, and if the screened board is to be used, a solid bottom board is reversed and placed on the stand below the screen. I suppose in a colder climate this is needed, but I plan to only use an open bottom.