Screened bottoms on mating nucs?

[David LaFerney]

I need to set up some mating nucs in the next few days, and the really quick and easy thing to do would be to just staple some screen to to bottoms of hive bodies and drill entrance holes. I'm using a division board to make 2 4 frame nucs in each 8 frame hive body - but I'm going to set them up with just 2 frames each to start with.

Anyway, that would be the easiest way to do it right now, but I'm not real confident that a 2 medium frame mating nuc is going to be well off with a screened bottom - of course it is likely to be pretty hot for the whole time that I use them this year. What do you guys think?

[Velbert]

It will work
I would build a rim for bee space on the bottom of box and i would use 1/8" hardware cloth

[David LaFerney]

My combination of frames and hive bodies has just enough bee space on both the top and bottom without a rim. I know I've heard that some don't.

So fully screened bottoms will be alright?

[Velbert]

For an emergency ok, i would do it just to buy me time to get some bottoms build it will also help with the heat for now if going to winter them in the box later cut you out a ply wood board and place under the box

This will buy you time using the screened bottom

[David LaFerney]

I'm not planning on wintering them in nucs. I'm just raising a few replacement queens. I actually have some regular solid bottom boards that I can set them on, but using the flush screen bottoms makes it easier to divide them into 2 nucs - and of course it lets them ventilate better.

After I requeen, I probably will use the nucs to house the old queens until I'm sure that the replacements are good, and I will probably leave them there until October to contribute as many resources back to the main hives as possible.

[Broke-T]

I have been told by some big queen breeders who tried screened bottoms that queens returning from mating flights would go under hive to screened bottom and not find way back intp hive.

Johnny

[tarheit]

I use 5 frame mating nucs that have between 1/2 and 1/3 of the bottom screened. I think I've only found one queen on the bottom of the hive in the past 3 years. They work very well for me during the heat of the summer and I start them up in mid April and they don't seem to have any problems then either. It does make them much easier to move since you can just tape the entrance hole and move them.

-Tim