clean bottom board

[Capricorn]

Howdy,

I hived a 3lb package of Italians, in new equipment with duragilt frames on April 11th. By May 16th they had right about 7 fully drawn frames, so I added a second deep. I went foundationless for this one, and pulled two frames of drawn comb, and one empty foundation up from the bottom deep, into the middle of the top deep. I replaced them in the bottom deep with foundationless frames. I didn't see the queen at this time, but I did see eggs, larva, an OK brood pattern, etc.. I had not opened it back up since then, but it has seemed like there is a lot of activity, the weather has been above 40 at night and above 70 during the day since May 16th here. I've checked the white, plastic, slide out bottom board under my screen every few days. Usually it is very coated with wax flakes, and other debris. This morning I checked the bb for the first time in 2 or 3 days, and it was almost clean... Seemed odd. There are usually a few small slugs on the board, will they clean this? It hasn't been anywhere near this clean before. I put my ear next to the hive to try and hear its buzz, didn't hear much of one. Curious I cracked open the telescoping and inner cover. There were two frames of bees on the top of the top deep. Still curious I cracked open the two deeps to look at the top of the bottom deep. At least 8 or more frames had bees on top of them. So at first glance the inside looked normal.. Can the screens get clogged? Maybe there is debris on the inside of the screen and it is blocking other debris from falling? Any opinions are welcome.

Thanks!

[indypartridge]

Any opinions are welcome.
I'd suggest pulling out the slide-in board, wiping it off and putting it away someplace until you want to do mite counts. It sounds like you and your bees are doing fine - no need to worry about how much debris is falling thru the screened bottom.

[tecumseh]

I guess the answer to whether the screen could become clogged (or propolized in some cases) might rest on the type of screen used. what is your screened material?

as a general rule... as a hive builds from package size to full blown hive the demographics of the hive becomes more balanced. that is... there is a full blown compliment (numbers) of all the various bees required to do the task required of a hive. this can be noticed directly in the 'house keeping' task seems to be done poorly when a hive is of limited numbers and becomes more perfect as the hive builds.

[Capricorn]

Thanks for the responses. I think the deal was that I might have checked and cleaned the bottom board insert the night before, but not really remembered it after checking it the next morning. I checked when I got home from work and it looked like what I was used to seeing. Jokes on me I guess! :doh: Anyway, this morning I put in a shim to wedge up the telescoping cover, to give a top entrance. The grass around the hive is pretty tall, and I'm not going to be cutting it down for at least a week or more. I figured they might appreciate easier access, and maybe it will help encourage them to fill the top box with comb.