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screened bottom boards

16K views 45 replies 29 participants last post by  Joseph Clemens 
#1 ·
I am thinking about trying some screened bottom boards but am concerned about leaving them on year round. I live in north central ohio and temps get below zero on occassion and we have been below freeaing most of the winter. I know I could build a bottom board with a solid removable panel but I am too lazy for that if I dont have to. Anybody have any info on how bees surive winter with an open bottom to the hive?
 
#2 ·
I don't have any experience with them wintering in SBB. I have wintered a lot of hives, though, and the concept is pretty contrary for me. I'd take a piece of baling twine and staple it to the edges of the under side of the bottom board to make a zig zag and slide in a piece of cardboard if it was me.
 
#3 ·
I built the screened bottom boards from this board that can be closed during the cold or when doing a mite drop test and they work for me. I am North of you and usually much colder than you but they are wonderful helping control the varora mites
Clint

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Clinton Bemrose
just South of Lansing Michigan
 
#5 ·
From all of the comments that I have read about cold and Bees, the cold will not kill the bees. If you don't have sufficent ventilation and it is cold where the moisture will collect on the cover and drip on the bees this will kill the bees. I know of a feral swarm that is exposed under the eave of a vacunt house that has been there for a while and they are still alive (in S.E. Ks, temp down to 0 Deg. at times). I have not been brave enough to leave my slide board out this year but I may next year. Seems that the cold doesn't affect the bees like it does us humans. As for making the slide it really isn't that much trouble. I use screws to install the 3/4"X3/4" strips to retain the slider board. You can use most anything available for the slider board. If you have more questions just post them here and someone will answer them. Dale
 
#6 ·
Personally I will not try the open bottom boards here. It's not just the temperature that's an issue. I've seen many a ground blizzard when it was 10 below and the wind was 60 mph. I don't think it should be open. Maybe the wind doesn't blow so much other places, but any winter storm here will hit 40 mph.
 
#7 ·
This is my first year with a sbb on during the winter. It has been pretty cold here in northeastern PA this winter, and so far so good. I have to agree, that an updraft could become a problem, but I have my hives on stands, that more or less prevent an updraft, but still allow ventilation during the season. Time will tell. We are getting another arctic blast this week, and temps down to the single digits again!

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Dale Richards
Dal-Col Apiaries
Drums, PA
 
#13 ·
With screen sizes with holes larger than #7, bees can get through, so you need to use #7 or #8 to block bees. But #7 is much harder to find than #8 hardware cloth. You may have better luck asking for "#8 hardware cloth" instead of "screen".

A useful reference on hardware cloth sizes:
#8 - no bee can pass. pollen gets stuck.
#7 - as long as there are no bent wires, no bee can pass. Pollen falls through.
#6 - worker bees can squeeze through (and will) but they have to wiggle and squirm a lot. Drones and queens cannot.
#5 - worker bees can squeeze through easily but lose some of their pollen. Queens and drones cannot.
#4 - all bees can pass (workers, drones and queens). The workers sometimes lose some of their pollen when they catch their basket on the wire. (mice cannot and this makes a nice mouse guard)
If you can't find #8 hardware cloth locally, here is one online source:
http://www.hardwareandtools.com/Jac...10-foot-Redi-Roll-Hardware-Cloth-6100804.html
 
#16 ·
> Are there any similar guidelines for allowing pests like SHB to fall through?

Your only options for suitable hardware cloth to allow SHB to pass are #7 or #8 as other sizes (smaller numbers) allow bees through as well. #7 hardware cloth is quite difficult to find, so for most beeks #8 is the only practical choice.

Betterbee does show #7 hardware cloth on their website, but it has been "out of stock" for a long time. I don't know of any other source for reasonable quantities.
 
#19 ·
I Have wintered them in TN and SC with SBB. Never had any problems. But I am going to solids this year for various reasons. I think they are overated as far as mite control.
 
#22 ·
The guru of our beekeeper's association is reportedly so good at reading sticky-boards that she can tell you where the bees are and how they are doing just by a quick look. Wanting to learn that is why we got ours. I probably will need years to get as good.
 
#23 ·
izybo,
I'm not too far from your location in Ohio and I would recommend closing off the bottoms for winter. If you are going to go through the effort of building them, spend a little extra time constructing them to accept trays. I've tried some of mine with open sbb all winter. They survived ok, but they are slower to build up in the Spring and tend to stay away from the bottom box which could end up being a problem in some cases.
 
#24 ·
I went my first couple of years with SBB completely open with 100% survival. I've found that, in the spring, open bottoms cause the bees to avoid using the bottom of the hive for raising brood, so I started closing them off. From now on, I'm going to solid.
 
#25 ·
It looks like number 7 will be hard to get and very expensive. so will probably be "out of stock" for a long time. We can have 7X8 made special. We are thinking it is not worth it. 8 is readily available from us as well as many other suppliers and hardware stores. We sell 10 or 100 foot rolls or by the foot, just tell us how long you want it.

Chris@betterbee.com
 
#26 ·
#30 ·
We have bought but have not yet used a pair of vented screened bottom boards equipped with Freeman beetle traps, sort of a plastic roasting pan you put vegetable oil in to drown any clumsy SHB, varroa, or apparently even the odd wax moth or two. You can substitute a corrugated board, too. It vents even with the board or tray installed, so I'll rig a means of blocking or reducing the vents in the coldest weather. We'll have the hives on a platform in either case, so the bottom was not going to be wide open.

How effective this arrangement is I don't know. I imagine seeing dead pests in it might be satisfying, but I'm told they can be messy. We'll operate in what I call the tiger cage, so hopefully bears, raccoons, and skunks won't mess with them.
 
#28 ·
I have SBB on most of my hives also. I keep them closed up for the winter and will open them up when the flow starts or when it starts getting hot. I have been thinking about changing some over to solid bottom boards just to see if they build up faster in the spring.
 
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