base/screen bottom construction

[oldforte]

is there any good reason that the base and screened bottom could not be one piece construction? i am in the process of building one.

[BGhoney]

Mine are , if you are talking about the sloped landing board that could be one piece also. Weight could be a problem if you move them much . I just build my screened bottom board with a 3/4 inch riser .

[The Honey Girl's Boy]

I built mine as one piece. One suggestion is to make a slide board under it to catch Varroa mites. Also a slide board lets you see alot of whats going on in the hive by what is on it when you pull it out.

[KQ6AR]

I build all 4 sides of mine out of 2x4. I put an angle on the part that sticks out beyond the supper too shed rain. That way its beefy enough you can attack legs directly to it if you want to.

[timgoodin]

I built some out of 2 X 4"'s. Make a rectangle box to fit under a standard hive body. Make it sort of like the letter H with one end boxed up and the other end extends out 4" for a landing board. The landing board is 2X4 as well set in at an angle to let rain drip off. Then I used 1/4" wire mesh to keep varmin out and topped it off with 1/2" strips around the top to hold the wire down on three sides. Paint and it's ready to go. I would not recommend it for carrying a long distance as it is pretty heavy. I see where 1/4" mesh is not recommended but I have had no problem in two years with robbing, small hive beetles or moths using these. They are esentially built out of scrap lumber so they cost nothing other than the cost of the mesh and my time which I would have probably been watching TV, on the computer or asleep so I don't value it too highly. Nothing fancy but gets the job done at relatively no cost. If I need to close it up I can take the hive apart and sit the base on a piece of plywood but I left them all open during the winter and the hives did great. Of course I'm in West KY and other than the ice storm we had last of January we had a relatively mild winter.

Tim

I'm wondering if 2X2" would work but don't have a table saw to rip the 2X4's...2X2 would be lighter to carry around.