Screened bottom boards

[MichelinMan]

Hello all,

Hope every one`s having a good spring. Personally, I`m doing pretty good. I went into winter with 6 hives and they are all doing well.

Now to my question. I`m thinking of converting all my BBs to SBBs. I`ve read a lot of good stuff about SBB. I will basically cut out a square in the floor and replace it with a #8 screen ( leaving about 2 inches of wood all around for support).

Before I do this I was wondering if anyone ever had a bad experience with SSBs? I`ve read a lot of pros... are there any cons? Is there any time/place/circumstance SSB should not be used? Don`t they chill the hive ?

Thanks to all that reply.

Luc

[Troy]

I had bought several different manufacturers SBBs and I found that the ones that had a lip around the edge as you are suggesting were not ideal.

The whole point of a SBB is that the mites should drop OUT of the hive. If you leave a 2 inch lip after cutting out the middle that leaves a pretty big percentage of area where the mite did not drop out of the hive, but got caught on the lip and can climb back in.

The ideal SBB is entirely screen with no lip or edge anywhere for the mites to catch on.

This is good:

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2...d-for-new.html

This is not good:

http://trianglewins.com/sam/photos/d/229-2/DSCF3048.JPG